For those with opioid addiction, that new coverage could help them access and afford treatment, such as the addiction medication buprenorphine, which can cost more than $100 a month without insurance, said Leighton Ku, a professor at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health.
In Massachusetts, another state that guarantees coverage, addiction specialists at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have seen a similar improvement in access, said Dr. Sarah Wakeman, who runs the hospital's substance abuse disorders initiative.
When you call people "junkies" or "scum," when even papers like the New York Times run stories that question the "consequences" of saving the lives of people with addiction, and when coverage often focuses on "demons" that supposedly afflict drug users, social stigma is reinforced.
Hellmann [28, 29] demonstrates that media coverage on addiction has introduced a new dominant view on addiction as a problem for the individual rather than for a marginalized group or for the society at large.
"This loss of coverage for addiction treatment, an essential health benefit (EHB) under the ACA, as well as reductions in addiction treatment coverage in states that receive EHB waivers, will have devastating consequences for people, families and communities ravaged by the opioid epidemic".
As the largest source of coverage for addiction treatment in the United States, Medicaid covers 35 to 50percentt of all medication-assisted therapy for opioid addiction, proven by research to be among the most effective methods of keeping addicted individuals in treatment and reducing the opioid overdose death rate.
Some economists have said that the number could be much lower, though, because many insurers will avoid or limit coverage of addiction treatment.
Correction: January 10 , 2001 Wednesday The Public Lives profile on Monday, about the Clinton administration's top drug policy official, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, who advocates health insurance coverage for addiction and mental illness on a par with benefits for physical illness, referred incorrectly to the group that has just received such benefits under the federal employee plan.
Under Obamacare, coverage for addiction treatment was made mandatory for insurers.
Indicative of how little coverage the addiction industry gets, AAC's alleged billing practice was revealed in a college student's blog post, using basic math.
