A new analysis by GW Health Policy and Management researchers concludes that Medicaid expansions are helping states cope with the rising toll taken by the opioid crisis. It also suggests that Congressional proposals to end the Medicaid expansion program may undermine efforts to address this growing public health problem.
Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, Director of GW’s Health Policy and Management Department’s Center for Health Policy Research and Naomi Seiler, JD, Associate Research Professor of Health Policy and Management at Milken Institute SPH, looked at newly released data from four Southern States (West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina)—all of which have experienced rapid increases in emergency room (ER) visits and hospital admissions due to the opioid crisis.
They found that Medicaid has covered much of the surge in ER visits and hospital admissions related to the opioid crisis in the two expansion states (West Virginia and Kentucky). In contrast, in the two states that did not expand Medicaid (Virginia and North Carolina), hospitals must cope with high uncompensated care costs related to life-saving treatment for overdoses and other drug-related emergencies.
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