Kill Cuomo’s ‘Opioid Tax’

Gov. Cuomo’s push for a special tax on opioid prescriptions is another one of his terrible gimmicks. He frames it as an “opioid epidemic surcharge” meant to force the makers of the drugs to help pay for fighting the abuse of them. But it’s not clear that Big Pharma would actually wind up paying the two-centsper-milligram tax on opioid-based medicines.

Most analysts expect the cost to be passed along to consumers via their insurance — which means that people who need pain relief, and everyone else with private insurance, would take much of the hit.

The one in three New Yorkers covered under the state’s Medicaid program might not feel the bite — but the state itself would pay more, because the feds typically don’t reimburse for this kind of targeted tax.

Worse, the tax could push those suffering from opioid dependence to switch to illegal opioids, like heroin and fentanyl, and so boost deadly overdoses.

Then there’s the gov’s claim that the tax will raise $125 million for a dedicated Opioid Prevention, Treatment and Recovery Fund. The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond points out that Cuomo’s budget shows no major new spending on drug treatment — which suggests the tax would merely go to help plug the state’s $4 billion budget hole.

“In effect,” says Hammond, “the state would be taxing opioid buyers — including, most prominently, itself — to balance the budget.”

Yes, some serious folks argue that drug makers helped create the opioid crisis by overhyping these medicines and downplaying or ignoring the potential for addiction. And there’s plenty of evidence of mass chicanery to use legal prescriptions to feed the black market.

But the remedies there involve prosecution and regulation — not a tax that neither drugmakers nor shady middlemen will wind up paying.

If the state needs cash to boost treatment and prevention — or just to balance its budget — lawmakers should look elsewhere.