Low Socio-Economic Addiction Patients Lack Treatment Services in 38% of U.S. States

(Fall 2016) In the 19 states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, many disadvantaged individuals living with addiction do not have adequate access to recovery programs or the funds to purchase treatment medication. By refusing federal money to widen Medicaid eligibility, these states essentially made coverage strictly available to only pregnant women, poor children and seniors. On the other hand, underprivileged residents in the states that did enlarge their Medicaid initiatives through the ACA are able to access health insurance and have the means to receive treatment for addiction.

In Missouri, a state that opted not to expand its coverage, the Medicaid program’s director ironically commented that the best way to ensure treatment for addiction is to become pregnant. Missouri is attempting to source funds for addiction recovery assistance from state tax coffers and federal grants, but officials in the Show Me State are not seeing much from those fronts, and the names on waiting lists for recovery programs continue to stack up.

In nearby Nebraska, state mental health official Mark Stringer called the lack of Medicaid expansion “a tragedy.” The director at one of Nebraska’s addiction clinics notes that many of the facility’s patients without insurance coverage withdraw from its program and start using again because they don’t have the money to continue treatment. One year of recovery services, including doctor appointments, treatment drugs and counseling, can reach $10,000; this includes discounts for those who are uninsured.

Many of the addiction patients currently struggling in Nebraska could be covered if the state had expanded its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.

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