Some states are successfully lowering opioid overdose death rates, despite a national increase, through thoughtful approaches to help individuals with opioid use disorder, according to an editorial written by The New York Times' editorial board.
Hawaii, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Wyoming are among the states that have decreased their opioid overdose rates. These states, along with some cities like San Francisco, have made the anti-overdose medication naloxone available to the public, along with anti-addiction medications like buprenorphine and methadone.
The increased access to these anti-addiction and anti-overdose drugs are attributed to statewide efforts to boost rates of insured individuals, since many residents cannot without health coverage. Massachusetts and Vermont expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and helped people sign up for private insurance. More than 60 percent of people with opioid use disorder in these states receive medication assisted treatment, according to a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association report.
The editorial board suggests health insurance is only part of the answer when it comes to the opioid epidemic. Most areas affected by the opioid epidemic need physician licensed to prescribe buprenorphine. In the U.S., physicians must participate in an eight-hour training before they can prescribe the medication. Once trained, they can only treat up to 275 patients per year with buprenorphine.
The federal government could save many lives if it reframed those physician requirements and increased access to necessary medications, the editorial board argued. Some policy makers are under the assumption anti-addiction drugs will simply replace the opioids. However, medical scholars found a greater availability of buprenorphine helped France reduce opioid overdose deaths by about 80 percent, according to a study published in The American Journal on Addictions.
"[E]ffective addiction treatment would be made available to anyone who needed it, regardless of their health insurance status or ability to pay," the editorial board concluded. "State and local governments are showing the way. Too many lives are at stake for federal officials and lawmakers not to follow their lead."
More articles on opioids: