UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The devastating consequences of the opioid crisis are far-reaching in the United States, impacting public health as well as social and economic welfare. Penn State researchers recently collaborated to address the issue in a supplement of The American Journal of Managed Care, titled “Deaths, Dollars, and Diverted Resources: Examining the Heavy Price of the Opioid Epidemic.”
According to Dennis Scanlon, distinguished professor of health policy and administration and director of the Center for Health Care and Policy Research at Penn State, the articles and commentaries in the special issue focus on the costs to governments, notably state governments.
“State and local governments have long shouldered the burden of the opioid epidemic and its costs to individuals and families," said Scanlon. "They are at ground zero for the epidemic, where services for those being harmed by opioids are significant and costly, spanning well beyond healthcare for treatment and prevention.”
Scanlon, along with Christopher Hollenbeak, professor of health policy and administration at Penn State, authored the introduction to the special issue, noting, “We take an opportunity to raise several important broader questions we believe have not received enough attention but are critically important for learning from the current opioid epidemic and preventing the potential burdens that could be associated with the next epidemic.”
Topics in this special issue are diverse and include the costs of the opioid crisis on employment and labor market productivity, burdens on the child welfare system and special education, the increased costs to the criminal justice system, and the economic burden on state Medicaid programs.
“The supplement fulfills our initial goal of exploring the effects of the opioid crisis on societal costs,” Scanlon explained. “Each article in this special issue presents complex cost analyses of the implications of opioid misuse, shedding new light on the opioid epidemic at the state level, and adds to a growing body of literature about the opioid epidemic.”
For example, researchers found that in the United States between 2000 and 2016, opioid misuse reduced state tax revenue by more than $11 billion, including approximately $10 billion in lost income tax revenue and almost $2 billion in lost sales tax revenue. In another paper, researchers found that between 2007 and 2016, total costs to Pennsylvania’s criminal justice system from the opioid crisis was over $526 million.