Report: The national cost of opioid use disorder is in the trillions of dollars each year, in addition to the suffering

Axios map, from Avalere Health data

As counties across the U.S. see many types of illicit drug deaths decrease, the country is left to grapple with the long trail of complex problems drug addictions cause, including their massive price tags.

A newly released in-depth analysis "concludes that it costs an average of nearly $700,000 to treat each affected person," reports Maya Goldman of Axios. "The cost burden falls unevenly, with states in a belt stretching through Appalachia to New England typically having bigger caseloads and a higher cost per case."

Although it's not possible to pin down the exact net dollars the country spent on opioid use disorder, the analysis from Avalere estimated 2024 costs at $4 trillion." The report's author, Margaret Scott, told Goldman, "While this is a cost to government, it's also a cost to private businesses, and the huge cost, of course, is to the individuals who have" opioid use disorder.

Comparing regional expenditures illustrates how extreme the costs for treatment can be. "The projected cost of opioid use disorder in 2024 ranged from $419,527 per case in Idaho to more than $2.4 million in D.C.," Goldman explains. "That covers lost productivity, health insurance costs, property lost to crime and other variables."

The economic losses from OUD are second only to the degree of human suffering individuals, families and friends have experienced by way of OUD trauma. Some of the sobering estimated and reported costs include:

• Economic burden on patients, including years of life lost and reduced quality of life, exceeded $3 trillion in 2024.
• Private businesses absorbed more than $467 billion in costs from lost productivity and health insurance costs.
• The federal government bore about $118 billion in Medicare and other federal insurance costs, lost taxes and criminal justice expenses.
• It cost state and local governments more than $94 billion, with about $42 billion going toward criminal justice costs.
• The Trump administration in March released its own analysis that estimated illicit opioids cost the U.S. about $2.7 trillion in 2023.

One way to reduce opioid treatment costs is to offer individuals the most effective treatment combinations possible. "Behavioral therapy alongside long-acting injectable buprenorphine — a treatment that reduces the risk of future overdoses — generated an estimated $295,000 savings per case, the biggest cost-saver of the options Avalere analyzed," Goldman reports. "Behavioral therapy alone saves a project $144,000 per case."

To use Axios' interactive state map of costs, click here.