Opioid crisis costs US $4 trillion

The main point: An analysis from Avalere found that opioid use disorder (OUD) costs the U.S. an estimated $4 trillion in 2024, with the total average annual cost associated with each case of OUD estimated to be nearly $700,000.

The details: The report covers:

• Health care costs: costs of OUD and fatal overdoses to insurers, treatment funded by other means, neonatal abstinence syndrome
• Criminal justice costs: investments in community safety associated with OUD; OUD-associated costs to police departments, courts, correctional facilities; property lost due to OUD-associated crime
• Lost productivity: lost employer, employee, and household productivity
• Patient burden costs: reduced quality of life due to OUD, life years lost

The findings:

• The cost burden falls unevenly, with states in Appalachia and New England typically having bigger caseloads and a higher cost per case. The projected cost of OUD in 2024 ranged from $419,527 per case in Idaho to more than $2.4 million in D.C. The cost per case totaled more than $1 million in West Virginia, Rhode Island, Ohio, and Maryland. Some of the regional variation is from lost tax revenue, which varies by state, along with the local availability of treatment.
• The cumulative burden on patients, including years of life lost and reduced quality of life, exceeded $3 trillion in 2024.
• The costs: Annual costs to governments, businesses, and society are driven by lost productivity for employers ($438 billion), employees ($248 billion), and households ($73 billion). Health insurance and costs for uninsured care are $111 billion, criminal justice costs are $52 billion, and other SUD treatment costs are $12 billion.
• Private businesses absorbed more than $467 billion in costs from lost productivity and health insurance costs.
• The federal government incurred about $118 million in Medicaid and other federal insurance costs, lost taxes, and criminal justice expenses.
• State and local governments faced more than $94 billion in costs, with about $42 billion of that going toward criminal justice costs.
• Treatment can defray the costs by more than 40%. Behavioral therapy alongside long-acting injectable buprenorphine generated an estimated $295,000 savings per case. Therapy plus methadone and therapy plus sublingual buprenorphine each save $271,000. Behavioral therapy alone saves $144,000 per case.

Why it’s important: In addition to the human toll, the opioid crisis is taking a huge financial toll as well. Treatment can save lives and money.

• At a time when the government is looking for cost savings, expanding treatment, not reducing funding for it (and making policy changes that will cause people to lose their health care), should be the clear answer.

Read more: Exclusive: Opioid use disorder costs almost $700K per case