Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Many States, Obamacare Opposition Leaves Those Struggling With Addiction Languishing On Waiting Lists
Even as they race to control a spiraling heroin and prescription opioid crisis, doctors, public health officials and community leaders in many states are struggling to get care to addiction patients because of persistent opposition to the Affordable Care Act from local political leaders. As a result, thousands of poor patients are languishing on waiting lists for recovery programs or are unable to get medicine to combat addiction because they can’t afford prescriptions, according to health officials nationwide. Most states expanded their Medicaid programs through the health law, often called Obamacare, giving poor adults in those states health insurance and a way to pay for addiction treatment. (Levey, 6/13)
Meanwhile, not only do Americans have leftover narcotics in their homes, but they're sharing them with other people —
Nearly 60 percent of Americans have leftover narcotics in their homes, and 20 percent have shared those with another person, according to a survey published Monday that provides more evidence of how opiates find their way into the hands of people other than patients with doctors' prescriptions. The survey of 1,032 people, which was published online in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, shows that nearly three-quarters said they provided the opiates to someone else to help that individual manage pain. Another 17 percent said they did it because the other person could not afford medication or didn't have insurance. (Bernstein, 6/13)
As lawmakers grapple with how best to combat the nation’s prescription painkiller abuse crisis, a recent survey is shedding light on how patients who get these medications -- drugs such as OxyContin, methadone or Vicodin -- sometimes share or mishandle them. According to findings detailed in a research letter published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, about one in five people who were prescribed the highly addictive drugs reported having shared their meds with a friend, often to help the other person manage pain. Most people with a prescription either had or expected to have extra pills left after finishing treatment. And almost 50 percent didn’t know how to safely get rid of the drugs left over after their treatment was complete, or how to store them while going through treatment. (Luthra, 6/13)
And in other news about the opioid crisis —
The entire General Assembly appears on board to offering easier access to a prescription drug already known to have reversed more than 2,000 overdoses of heroin or other opium-based drugs in North Carolina. The House agreed unanimously Monday night to legislation creating a statewide standing order at any pharmacy to prescribe naloxone. (6/13)
Roxanne Granberry had a separate bank account from her husband and sometimes a separate home. But a jury in an Alexandria federal court decided that the couple should go to prison together for illegally buying and selling prescription painkillers. William Granberry, who pleaded guilty in February, would print false prescriptions for the opioid oxycodone. Friends and relatives would then collect the pills at pharmacies in the D.C. area for sale on the black market. Over eight years, prosecutors estimate that the group sold about 130,000 pills for around $25 apiece, netting a profit of $3.25 million. (Weiner, 6/13)
