A recent Republican tax bill could significantly increase opioid-related deaths due to reduced access to Medicaid’s treatment programs for opioid addiction, according to health economics researchers. The proposed cuts to Medicaid would result in around 156,000 people losing access to life-saving medications like methadone and buprenorphine.
Researchers at Boston University and the University of Pennsylvania used a public health modeling tool to estimate that overdose rates among those affected could double, leading to approximately 1,000 additional fatal overdoses annually. This projection relies on data from the Congressional Budget Office and other existing research showing people who receive these medications are less likely to die from a drug overdose.
This comes at a time when opioid-related deaths have been declining, with about 78,000 Americans dying in the past year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, Medicaid is the nation’s largest funder of addiction treatment, and deep cuts would risk reversing recent progress.
Experts warn that this impact could be just the beginning, as many people without access to treatment are also at risk of overdose death. “The 1,000 [additional deaths] is a conservative estimate based on who’s getting the medications,” says Regina LaBelle, a former Obama administration official and Georgetown University professor.
Source: https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/18/medicaid-cuts-researchers-predct-fatal-overdose-spike