People with addiction regularly go to doctor’s offices, clinics, and hospitals and receive insufficient or no treatment, often with deadly consequences.

Why it’s important: Many who die from addiction-related illnesses have had significant contacts with health care and social services, opportunities to prevent their deaths. The results of poor addiction care are widespread, but there are few legal or professional consequences.

The stats: More than 80% of people who need substance use treatment do not receive it.

One study found that more than two-thirds of Americans who died from overdoses in 2024 had “at least one potential opportunity for intervention” but didn’t receive help.

The details: NPR tells the story of one person who was discharged from the emergency room following an overdose without receiving meaningful treatment who died shortly after from an overdose on the drugs still in his system. But the problem goes beyond emergency rooms.

Health care providers across settings often avoid treating patients with substance use disorder (SUD), despite the fact that safe and affordable medications for treating alcohol and opioid use disorders have been available for decades.
Substance use was long seen as a criminal or moral issue, with access to treatment heavily regulated. This led to fear and hostility among the general public and medical professionals toward people with SUD and SUD treatment. Despite efforts to change attitudes, stigma among health professionals remains a barrier to treatment.
Many health professionals lack training on substance use and addiction. Most medical and nursing schools in the U.S. still do not teach students how to care for patients with SUD as a core part of their medical practice.