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States with expanded healthcare experienced less fatalities.

Despite the fact that the opioid crisis is at an all-time high, a new study shows that those opioid overdose deaths involving fentanyl and heroine decreased in states that had expansive Medicaid programs from 2001 to 2017.

Medicaid is a program that was created as a safeguard for millions of low-income people to gain access to health insurance coverage and/or obtain better access to low-cost prescription medication like opioid pain relievers.

According to U.S. News & World Report, “Researchers from California, New York and Rhode Island examined mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System of 3109 counties in 49 states and the District of Columbia from Jan. 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2017 to determine whether the Affordable Care Act-related Medicaid expansion had an impact on opioid-related overdose deaths by specific type of opioid between states that expanded their public insurance programs and those that did not.”

Ultimately, it was found that states that expanded their Medicaid coverage showed that opioid-related deaths had decreased by six percent. There was an 11 percent decrease in fatal heroin overdoses and about a 10 percent decrease in opioid-related deaths involving synthetic substances like fentanyl.

Since 2017, 32 states and Washington, D.C. have expanded their Medicaid insurance coverage.