Make non-opioid medications available to Medicaid patients

The pain and loss caused by the opioid epidemic have touched every community across the United States. At the Greater Harlem Coalition, we’ve seen the impact of this crisis firsthand, and we have worked tirelessly to advocate for the equitable distribution of effective treatment programs across New York City. In order to achieve our goal of breaking the deadly cycle of addiction, New Yorkers need our elected leaders to make sure alternatives to addictive opioids are accessible.

Thanks to recent medical breakthroughs, non-opioid, non-addictive pain medications will soon be available to the public — and that is why it’s urgent that our state lawmakers take action to ensure these medications are available and affordable for our state’s Medicaid patients.

First, it’s important to emphasize the positive impact that the FDA’S approval of the first-ever non-opioid alternative to treat severe pain could have. Doctors will soon be able to prescribe effective pain relief without having to worry about its potential for misuse, abuse and addiction.

Making these products available to patients enrolled in government-administered health care services is essential. Prescription opioids have played a major role in the opioid crisis, and over 7.3 million New Yorkers access healthcare and their prescriptions through our state’s Medicaid program. But Medicaid programs across the nation have had to rely on addictive opioids for patients dealing with acute pain. A report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services last year reflects this reliance, finding that about 40 percent of non-elderly adults with opioid use disorder receive their coverage through Medicaid.

On the federal level, lawmakers have shown their understanding that with the medical breakthrough of nonopioid treatments on the near horizon, the time to make opioid alternatives more accessible to the public is now. In January, Congress introduced the Alternatives to Prevent Addiction in the Nation Act (Alternatives to PAIN) Act, which if passed would ensure Medicare patients (seniors)

have access to non-opioid medicines and pay no more for these safer alternatives than they would for generic opioid pain medicines.

However, since Medicare is a federally administered program, it’s essential that states pass similar legislation for their state-administered Medicaid programs. New York needs to act swiftly to ensure more people have access to these alternatives.

At the Greater Harlem Coalition, we will continue to fight for effective and equitable drug treatment and recovery programs for those already suffering the consequences of opioid addiction. But by making sure patients have access to nonaddictive alternatives from the start, we can help ensure they never develop a reliance on these drugs to begin with. We urge our elected leaders in Albany to act quickly to pass legislation that makes non-opioid alternatives an option that’s easily available, and affordable, to those enrolled in New York Medicaid.