Drug overdoses are taking the lives of more than 100,000 Americans each year and it is due to a combination of the opioid surge and insufficient access to treatment and other programs. Unfortunately, the United States has never had a treatment system in place that could help mitigate the damage from increasing supplies of painkillers, heroin, and fentanyl. Inaccessible treatments are a huge barrier, with families often spending thousands of dollars for treatment that is not covered by insurance. President Biden introduced a plan that would total $125 billion over 10 years, but the plan hasn’t been taken up by lawmakers and there hasn’t been much push from the White House, either. Inaction also comes with a high cost, though, with overdose deaths costing the economy $1 trillion a year in health expenses, reduced productivity and other losses.
