America Was Finally Turning a Corner on Opioids. Until Now.

Not so long ago, the scourge of opioids seemed unstoppable. More than 400,000 Americans died from drug overdoses between 2020 and 2023. The toll was more than twice as large as that from either guns or vehicle accidents. But 2023 now appears to have been a turning point. Since then, annual overdose deaths have declined more than 25 percent, thanks partly to a creative public health campaign to expand access to treatments like Narcan and Suboxone. The crisis is finally easing.

President Trump’s big domestic policy law threatens that progress. The law’s Medicaid cuts, which finance lower taxes for the wealthy, will deprive millions of Americans of health insurance. These changes will harm people with all sorts of medical conditions. Yet addicts are particularly vulnerable because of how many of them are on Medicaid. The program covers nearly half of non-elderly adults with an opioid addiction, according to KFF, a health research group. Without insurance, many will drop out of treatment and relapse. Researchers at Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania estimate that the law will end access to opioid treatment for more than 150,000 Americans.