Medicaid Expands Access to Lifesaving Naloxone
A key component of the national strategy and many state strategies for preventing overdose deaths from opioids is to put the opioid-reversal drug naloxone into the hands of the right people at the right time. State actions to counter deaths from opioid overdoses, which numbered over 33,000 in 2015, include allowing physicians to prescribe naloxone to family members and friends of opioid users, allowing pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a prescription, training lay people to administer it, modifying civil and criminal liability rules governing its use, creating grant programs to purchase naloxone for first responders, and ensuring that Medicaid reimburses naloxone prescriptions. Recent evidence shows that states that have actively promoted naloxone experienced 9 percent to 11 percent reductions in opioid-related deaths.