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Orange Blooded [3590]
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Has Medicaid Made the Opioid Epidemic Worse?
Jul 5, 2017, 8:49 AM
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http://www.nationalreview.com/article/449171/medicaid-opioid-problem-has-it-made-epidemic-worse
Ohio, which has enrolled more than 700,000 adults in its Obamacare Medicaid expansion, is seeing worse problems with opioids than ever before. This year alone, the state is on pace for more overdose deaths than the entire United States had in 1990, according to an Ohio county coroner.
According to Andrew Kolodny, a Brandeis University senior scientist and the executive director of Physicians Responsible for Opioid Prescribing, “overprescribing of opioids is fueling the epidemic.”
CDC data indicate that overdose deaths involving prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999, and that prescription opioids now account for half of all opioid-overdose deaths.
Even more disturbing, studies cited by the CDC have found that “opioid prescribing rates among Medicaid enrollees are at least twofold higher than rates for persons with private insurance.”
The CDC’s own study of Washington State showed that a person on Medicaid was 5.7 times more likely to die an opioid-related death than someone not on Medicaid.
As 15 million able-bodied adults were added to Medicaid through Obamacare, the drug problem only grew worse.
The connection between drugs and massive expansions of government benefits has been seen before.
As the food-stamp program expanded nationally, there was an explosion of EBT cards’ showing up in drug arrests.
The situation reached a breaking point in Maine, where DEA agents said that it is “common practice for drug dealers to take custody of a drug user’s EBT card either as direct payment or in lieu of immediate payment.”
Taxpayers funding the drug cartels.
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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And I am referring to the legal drug cartels dispensing
Jul 5, 2017, 8:52 AM
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government controlled substances. Clearly, we need more regulation.
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Hall of Famer [21579]
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So regulation is good when in regards to people's health
Jul 5, 2017, 9:03 AM
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but not in regards to Wall Street. Got it.
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Rock Defender [53]
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So if we eliminate Medicaid, we solve the opioid crisis?***
Jul 5, 2017, 8:55 AM
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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Classic liberal response.***
Jul 5, 2017, 8:55 AM
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Hall of Famer [21579]
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So then what are you suggesting?
Jul 5, 2017, 9:09 AM
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Because Medicaid isn't causing the crisis.
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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I agree but...
Jul 5, 2017, 10:04 AM
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medicaid is making it worse. It's profitable for those on gov healthcare to get drugs and sell them on the black market. Drug companies, doctors, drug stores and patients are all making money off the honest taxpayers and flooding our nation with one of the most powerful and addictive drugs on the planet.
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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I don't think anyone is considering that option.
Jul 5, 2017, 10:00 AM
[ in reply to So if we eliminate Medicaid, we solve the opioid crisis?*** ] |
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Many appreciate the problem. It appears you don't care. You provide a straw man which degrades a legitimate discussion into cheap partisan rhetoric.
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Rock Defender [53]
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CT88, if the OP was anyone else, you'd have a point.***
Jul 5, 2017, 11:07 AM
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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Having difficulties focusing on the subject matter at hand?***
Jul 5, 2017, 11:28 AM
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Legend [17294]
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Perhaps other statistically significant variables?***
Jul 5, 2017, 9:25 AM
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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This is a tough nut to crack.
Jul 5, 2017, 9:54 AM
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It's not as simple as ending or regulating medicaid's coverage of opioids prescriptions. Though one regulation may help.
Oxy-anything in any form sells for $1/ milligram. Medicaid pays for a prescription of 30,60 or 90 pills which are each 5,10,20,40 or 60mg doses. Some get those prescriptions each month. Seldom does anyone take 3 60mg pills a day. The rest go on the black market. This also happens with those covered by medicare. One prescription can be sold quickly for 1500 to 2000 bucks. Oxycontin is as liquid as cash.
We can slow this down by drug testing patients who receive these prescriptions using hair instead of urine. The hair test cover a period of intake and not just a snapshot of the content of residue at the time of testing. The hair test will be expensive but they will ultimately determine if a patient is taking all their medications. Unfortunately, there is no way to determine if they need them or not. The often experience pain which is worse than the pain that got them on the drug to start.
You must remember this, some people are addicted to pain medications through no fault of their own. One of the parents on my baseball team over two decades ago shared his story of addiction to pain meds. He said he didn't decide to quit until long after his back surgery had healed. 'It was harder for me to quit pain pills than it was to quit drinking, smoking or anything else I've ever tried,' he said.
Message was edited by: ClemsonTiger1988®
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All-TigerNet [12098]
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well that's one way to get them off welfare
Jul 5, 2017, 9:58 AM
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amidoinitrite?
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CU Medallion [56103]
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I don't know, did it?
Jul 5, 2017, 11:04 AM
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The article doesn't explain why it would have besides "Medicaid provides a 'free' plastic card loaded with unlimited government funds" which definitely sounds like a bona fide true thing that totally happens in real life.
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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Now now.
Jul 6, 2017, 9:26 AM
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Doctors are a party to this situation along with big pharma, drug stores and medicaid/medicare.
Federal laws limit opioid refills to 1. That puts patients seeking pain meds back in doctors' offices six times a year. Extrapolate the income from medicaid and medicare if a doctor has 25 patients who are on pain meds and consider the security of a steady government paycheck.
The patient on medicare or medicaid pays ~3 bucks while the drugstore and manufacturer share the rest of a ~$350 income.
You know such an economic opportunity is explored by doctors, pharma and CVS...Oh yeah, the patient can get stay 'happy,' and sell each pill for $20/mg. Prescriptions pills are 10,20, 30, 40, 60 and even 90mgs and some patients are prescribed 3 pills/doses per day.
That's 90mg x 2pill/da x 30days/mo. That is considering that one 90mg oxycontin split into three doses will keep a 250lb person blasted into a stupor 24/7 with a ton of money in his pocket.
Of course that's a worst case since oxy is prescribed in a variety of doses.
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Legend [15492]
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Re: Now now.
Jul 6, 2017, 2:04 PM
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You're right, there is plenty of blame to go around. Click the link below, West Virginia is suing drug companies and distributors for flooding one county with over 40 million doses of opiods. Strangly, we lock up the addicts, but merely fine the suppliers:
"A county in West Virginia is suing 10 wholesale drug distributors — including subsidiaries of Walmart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS — alleging the companies flooded the state with prescription painkillers, contributing to an epidemic of opioid addiction and overdoses.
Cabell County, which includes the West Virginia city of Huntington, near the state’s western border with Ohio, has a population of about 96,000, but the lawsuit alleges the drug distributors sold local retailers nearly 40 million doses of prescription opioids from 2007 to 2012.
The complaint, filed Thursday in West Virginia federal court, says the companies “opened Pandora’s Box and released a seemingly endless supply of prescription opiates into Cabell County and fed the epidemic while making billions of dollars.”
The other companies named the lawsuit are Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, Kroger, McKesson, and H.D. Smith, all among America’s largest wholesale pharmaceutical distributors. They have not yet responded to the allegations in court.
The companies, which sell popular painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin, have repeatedly been blamed by states and local governments for fueling America’s opioid crisis. More than 33,000 people died in 2015 from overdoses caused by prescription pills and illicit drugs such as heroin, and West Virginia has the highest rate of fatal overdoses in the country, with 41.5 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Some of the companies named in the Cabell County lawsuit have been sued before in connection with the opioid epidemic. The state of West Virginia sued Cardinal Health in 2012 and received a $20 million settlement earlier this year after alleging that the company knowingly sold millions of pills to shady pharmacies that doled out the medication without proper oversight. The city of Huntington also filed its out suit against Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen in January 2017. Elsewhere, major drug companies such as Pfizer and Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, have paid out multi-million dollar settlements over accusations that they misled the public about the risks of taking painkillers.
https://news.vice.com/story/drug-companies-sued-for-flooding-west-virginia-county-with-40-million-doses-of-opioids
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All-In [48078]
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I don't much about the issue, but seems like everyone...
Jul 5, 2017, 11:43 AM
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is dying from the opiate drug Fentanyl. Oxcontin seems like it was the old major problem to a slight extent. What the heck is Fentanyl? It's on the news every day about somebody dying from it.
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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Re: I don't much about the issue, but seems like everyone...
Jul 6, 2017, 9:32 AM
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According to what I'm hearing about it, it is a substitute for heroin, oxycontin and other pain meds including methadone.
To date no one has shown any bad side effects, I reckon it's because they all overdose and dead people only show one symptom.
We are in a shameful situation. An old granny woman can be riding in a car, get in a crash which merits pain medications for her wrinkled old body and end up giving head in a dark alley to pay for getting high then die from street drugs.
This isn't funny but it's kinda funny.
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Heisman Winner [111630]
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Re: Has Medicaid Made the Opioid Epidemic Worse?
Jul 5, 2017, 9:50 PM
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and here I though it was because doctors were pushing highly addictive pain killers onto their patients and not properly monitoring their usage because sales of said drug raked in lots of profit. I guess you can say the motive here was profit, and not our social well being.
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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There you go. It's the doctors' fault.***
Jul 6, 2017, 12:14 AM
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Rock Defender [53]
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Why do you scoff at blaming doctors for overprescribing
Jul 6, 2017, 7:28 AM
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but have no issue blaming the crisis on folks receiving Medicaid?
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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The doctor measures pain how? Who forces the patient
Jul 6, 2017, 10:21 AM
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to ask for drugs? Who forces the patient to sell the drugs? Who supplies the means for all of this to happen? As the article states, Medicaid patients receive a multiple number of Rx than the private sector. Why? We, the taxpayers, are funding this. So you tell me, as a good card carrying liberal, what is the solution?
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Rock Defender [53]
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Legalizing pot for starters***
Jul 6, 2017, 11:00 AM
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All-In [48078]
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You're ignorant as usual.
Jul 6, 2017, 11:11 AM
[ in reply to The doctor measures pain how? Who forces the patient ] |
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These doctors are just drug dealers in most of the opioid situations. They don't even treat the patient. You get an MRI for a prior injury that doesn't hurt and they give you 180 30mg oxcicodone per month. They got a hold of the problem here in Florida to an extent though. The pharmacies will no longer fill those prescriptions. They turn the people away. I have a friend that is a pharmacist at Target. He used to see 100 junkies per day with their prescriptions from their doctors. Now he sees a couple. They don't fill for anyone other than their longtime cancer patients, but they are few and far between.. There used to be a RX on ever corner here in South Florida. They are all closed down now. The doctors and their offices have got shut down. The remaining quack doctors have very few patients, because the can't fill. That's the way South Florida cut deep into the problem of that drug. Now everyone is on actual heroin. The doctors were the main problem. They were drug dealers. They knew it too. There are still some other states where the doctors are still running somewhat wild like in Ohio. Anyway, there is a new bill headed to Senate that it's main focus to end this problem is rehabs for those addicted and going after doctors for the over prescribing.
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Legend [15492]
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Re: The doctor measures pain how? Who forces the patient
Jul 6, 2017, 2:16 PM
[ in reply to The doctor measures pain how? Who forces the patient ] |
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> to ask for drugs? Who forces the patient to sell the > drugs? Who supplies the means for all of this to > happen? As the article states, Medicaid patients > receive a multiple number of Rx than the private > sector. Why? We, the taxpayers, are funding this. So > you tell me, as a good card carrying liberal, what is > the solution?
The doctor is solely responsible and fully accountable for the prescriptions they write.
It is illegal for them to prescribe narcotics merely because someone asks them to.
Unfortunately, they clearly do it anyway. They should go to jail as well.
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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What is the pain measurement scale to get oxycontin?***
Jul 6, 2017, 2:30 PM
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Rock Defender [53]
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Whichever face looks like the winky face.***
Jul 6, 2017, 2:41 PM
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All-In [48078]
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All-In [48078]
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So cartels and the drug dealers aren't really the ones..
Jul 6, 2017, 11:18 AM
[ in reply to There you go. It's the doctors' fault.*** ] |
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responsible for the cocaine addiction in the US? Do they take any responsibility? Do meths dealers take any responsibility for meth addicts? You're losing site that most of these doctors moving these opiates are just quacks. There are tons of them too. Junkies know which doctors push the opiates and which don't. They talk to each other and they all go to those doctors. The quality concerned doctors aren't pushing opiates and over prescribing.
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Legend [15492]
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Re: There you go. It's the doctors' fault.***
Jul 6, 2017, 1:55 PM
[ in reply to There you go. It's the doctors' fault.*** ] |
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Did you read the article? Clearly the doctors are complicit.
“overprescribing of opioids is fueling the epidemic.”
It's an "Opiod Epidemic" dispensed by prescription.
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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Right. Couldn't be the patients' fault.***
Jul 6, 2017, 2:32 PM
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Heisman Winner [111630]
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Re: Right. Couldn't be the patients' fault.***
Jul 6, 2017, 5:34 PM
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when patients are not being told how addictive and dangerous they are, absolutely it is not their fault. In fact the makers of oxi swore up and down that it was not addictive. Personally I think they should pay for people's treatment and someone from their PR department be held liable criminally. But we know this will never happen. but continue on with you "anything government is the devil" campaign. It is all you do in here.
http://theweek.com/articles/541564/how-american-opiate-epidemic-started-by-pharmaceutical-company
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Orange Blooded [3590]
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LOL... a lot of the patients are selling their drugs.***
Jul 6, 2017, 10:09 PM
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Oculus Spirit [93673]
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Doctors are certainly culpable.
Jul 6, 2017, 9:38 AM
[ in reply to Re: Has Medicaid Made the Opioid Epidemic Worse? ] |
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Don't leave out patients, drug stores, big pharma and the millions of hop head in this country. Anyway you shake it we have a problem.
Pointing at one source that perpetuates the problem isn't a solution, it's a distraction. The face is that drug stores, doctors and government spending are the only factors of this problem which we can exercise some measure of control.
Doctors prescribing pain meds, drug stores who sell them and pharma which manufactures them are being regulated. It's time to slam the door on government's participation in this problem.
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Heisman Winner [111630]
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Re: Doctors are certainly culpable.
Jul 6, 2017, 5:39 PM
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maybe if doctors were not allowed to accept "gifts' from big pharma, we could curb some of this. and I am not sure how removing regulations will fix our problems.
Libertarians love to point out how when Portugal decriminalized hard drugs, that drug use went down int he country. What they fail to point out is that the government used the money it saved from its prison system to provide free drug treatment to any one and everyone and how that directly resulted in the decline in drug use.
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Replies: 34
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