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The Joint Economic Committee’s Democrats released a report with new data on Medicaid’s role in combatting the opioid crisis.
Why it’s important: Congressional Republicans have proposed Medicaid cuts, which would jeopardize access to addiction treatment and progress made on reducing overdose deaths.
The findings:
- More than 1 million individuals received medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) through Medicaid in 2022. Many more individuals with Medicaid coverage also received other forms of addiction and overdose treatment.
- About 60% of Medicaid enrollees who receive MOUD are only eligible for Medicaid because of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. In several states, including New Hampshire, Louisiana, Montana, Idaho, and Kentucky, that goes up to 70% or more.
- Given “trigger laws” that would automatically end expansion in some states if the federal share of Medicaid funding is cut, at least 110,000 people receiving MOUD could lose access to treatment. Federal cuts to Medicaid would also likely lead states without trigger laws to drop expansion, putting MOUD coverage at risk for hundreds of thousands of additional individuals.
Read more: REPORT: New Data Show Role of Medicaid – Especially Medicaid Expansion – in Combating the Fentanyl Crisis; Critics say GOP Medicaid cuts could slash fentanyl addiction treatment
Published
April 2025