Headline: Social Science Research Seminar: Medicaid expansion, Opioid crisis

Professor Biniyam Yemane will present his research on Medicaid Expansion and the Opioid crisis: the impact of increasing access to health insurance on the opioid epidemic. The United States is facing an unprecedented opioid epidemic. In 2015, over 2 million people had a prescription opiate addiction and in 2017 about 130 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose per day (CDC, 2018). The expansion of Medicaid plays a central role in the nation’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic. Medicaid also enhances state capacity to provide early interventions and treatment. This study investigates the impact of increasing access to health insurance on the opioid epidemic. The study employs the National Drug Overdose Surveillance Data to answer the research question. Using states that did and did not expand Medicaid with county-level variation in income and uninsured rates, we quantify the differential gains among the non-elderly population. The results show that access to health insurance with substance abuse treatment and prevention is responsible for, albeit small, decreases in the abuse of opiates. The results also show a higher differential gain among states where Medicaid pays a higher percentage of the cost and where coverage includes more substance abuse treatment medications.