Medicaid Expansion Helps Opioid Users Get Treatment
Sunday, August 19, 2018 at 7:42AM The expansion of Medicaid that came along with the Affordable Care Act has made it easier for some opioid users to get treatment, new research suggests.
In a study of nearly 12 million Medicaid patients, researchers found that while the number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers decreased slightly, prescriptions for buprenorphine (Buprenex), a drug to treat addiction, and naloxone (Narcan), which is used to reverse an opioid overdose, rose significantly.
"Getting a Medicaid card has enabled a lot of people to get into doctors' offices and get treatment for their addiction," said lead researcher Brendan Saloner. He's an assistant professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
"People who were uninsured before Medicaid expansion were less able to go to a private doctor to get a prescription for buprenorphine and naloxone. They relied more on the public safety net or paid cash," Saloner said.
The new findings aren't what opponents of Medicaid expansion predicted. They argued that with more poor people receiving Medicaid, the number of opioid users would increase, making the opioid crisis worse.
Instead, making medical care more accessible allowed more opioid users to get treatment, Saloner said.
Nor did prescriptions for opioids rise, proving fears that cheap painkillers would create more addicts were unfounded, he said. Opioid prescription rates didn't change significantly.
"My hope is that Medicaid expansion is going to bring more people into the treated population," Saloner said.
Seventeen states still are fighting expanded Medicaid. And it's in many of these states, including Tennessee, Utah and Florida, where the opioid epidemic has hit hardest, Saloner said.
He said expanded Medicaid doesn't solve the crisis, but it is an essential part of helping opioid addicts get treatment.
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