National Health Emergency Renewed; Budget Lacking

(Spring 2018) Near the end of January, President Trump reinstated the three-month order declaring a public health emergency for the opioid epidemic. This lifts restrictions on how states choose to spend federal monies to battle opioids, permitting each state to move money earmarked for other public health programs to underwrite the cost of its opioid treatment programs.  Unfortunately, this order does not come with a lot of financial backing.  The Trump administration’s new federal budget proposal allocates $6 billion to the cause.

Addiction treatment specialists and some legislators believe the President’s budget is only a meager start. The National Governors Association is urging lawmakers and the president to deliver more money to strike back against opioid addiction. The governors are requesting that federal lawmakers mandate training for opioid prescribers and require these providers to use controlled substance prescription monitoring databases. Additionally, the group is pushing for more access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and Medicare coverage of methadone for seniors.

It’s estimated that the fight against opioids may have drained as much as $504 billion from the American economy in 2015. This is equal to almost 3% percent of the nation’s 2015 gross domestic product (GDP). Additionally, in 2015 the price of non-fatal opioid health issues reached $72 billion for 2.4 million individuals with opioid addiction. This estimate includes expenses related to medical treatment and the criminal justice system as well as reduced workplace productivity costs of opioid-addicted individuals.

With the problem’s scope this large, it stands to reason that a great deal of funding is needed to change the situation.

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