In case you forgot, we have an opioid epidemic in this country, of everything from OxyContin, to heroin, to fentanyl. Despite the efforts of local and federal governments, not much to end the epidemic has been accomplished so far. In part, this is because not everybody agrees on what needs to be done to end it, or even decrease it, and in part because those efforts cost money.
Politicians and taxpayers are loath to spend money even when it would save money in the long run. The loss of productivity and life, the increase in criminal violence caused by illegal drug trafficking, and the cost of prosecuting and incarcerating said drug traffickers and simple abusers could be reduced by better and easier drug and alcohol addiction treatment.
Addicts, too, are misers. One reason addicts don’t quit, even when their drug use is obviously impairing their ability to maintain a job or personal relationships, is that rehab costs more money in the short run. A thirty-day or three-month stay in a substance use disorder treatment facility costs more than continued drug use for the same period. We will probably never end the opioid epidemic so long as it is easier and cheaper to stay addicted.
As it stands right now, if every addict wanted to get substance use disorder treatment, there wouldn’t be enough beds to house them or facilities to treat them. There already are many fake rehabs that keep addicts high while the facility collects fees from their insurance.
Including mental health and substance use disorder in the Essential Health Benefits required under the Patient and Affordable Care Act (ACA) improved theoretical access and affordability, but didn’t in and of itself increase the number of beds. Even access to some of the harm-reduction, medication-assisted treatments (MAT)—such as the low-level opioids methadone and buprenorphine (often the formulation Suboxone—is limited by how many doctors are willing to prescribe it, and the how many patients each doctor can help.
If we’re serious about stopping this epidemic, we need for our leaders to do more, and that means we have to spend more.
