Opioid abuse seems tied to Medicaid

Much has been written lately about the opioid crisis. Why? Because there is a real crisis with opioids. In South Carolina alone, 3,000 people have died since 2011 and there were 52,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2015.

Opioids can be obtained primarily by a doctor’s prescription or smuggled into the country from China and Mexico.

A police detective in Wisconsin told Sen. Ron Johnson’s office that 240 oxycodone pills (opioids) can be purchased for a $1 copay with a Medicaid card and resold for $4,000 on the street.

In rounding up votes to pass Obamacare, President Barack Obama and his staff urged states to expand Medicaid, thus covering more uninsured voters. Good intentions. South Carolina wisely declined to do so.

A recent study by Express Scripts Holding Company, the largest pharmacy benefits management organization, found about a quarter of Medicaid patients were prescribed an opioid in 2015.

It appears to me Obamacare is contributing to the rise in opioid abuse.

A Health and Human Services analysis reports that between 2013 and 2015, overdose deaths per million residents rose twice as fast in the 29 Medicaid-expansion states than the 21 non-expansion states.

So much for good intentions. Unintended consequences bite your behind every time.

Just another reason to scrap and replace Obamacare.

This story was originally published September 14, 2017 at 8:29 AM with the headline "Opioid abuse seems tied to Medicaid."