The amount of money taxpayers are spending on Suboxone prescriptions for individuals enrolled in MaineCare has surged to $26.2 million per year, making it the most expensive and most popular drug covered under Medicaid.
According to state health spending data, Medicaid paid out $26,177,048 for Suboxone prescriptions for 7,920 individuals from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
That’s an increase from the period from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020 of $5.6 million per year and nearly 1,000 Suboxone users.
Suboxone, a combination of buprenorphine and naloxone, is used to treat opioid addiction. Versions of the drug come as a patch, sublingual film, and even a transdermal implant. Naloxone serves to block opioids from interacting with the brain, while buprenorphine is itself a powerful opioid sometimes prescribed by itself for pain.
The use of Suboxone to treat opioid addiction has been controversial because the drug has addictive qualities and a high potential for abuse.
Under Republican Gov. Paul LePage, MaineCare did not offer reimbursement for Suboxone, preferring to steer low-income Mainers suffering from opioid addiction toward abstinence-based models of recovery.
When Democratic Gov. Janet Mills took office in 2019, the state expanded eligibility for MaineCare and made Suboxone available to MaineCare enrollees without prior authorization.
The drug is now broadly available and can be acquired from primary care doctors, health clinics, offices that specialize in medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, and via telemedicine.
The trend observable in the four years of available data suggests that rather than reducing the total population of Mainers suffering from addiction, Maine has created a new drug of choice for a subset of those suffering from opioid addiction — at a growing cost to tax payers.
Evidence of Suboxone use is also often found in connection with police arrests related to the use of illicit opioids.
The information is made public on an annual basis due to a law passed in 2018 that requires the public disclosure of certain health care expenditure data by the Maine Health Data Organization.
Suboxone was originally developed and marketed by Indivior PLC.
In 2019, around the same time Maine was making Suboxone easier to get for MaineCare patients, Indivior was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly making false or misleading claims about Suboxone’s safety and for using online marketing to funnel patients to doctors more likely to prescribe Suboxone.
In 2020, Indivior agreed to pay a $600 million settlement to resolve their civil and criminal liability. Despite the settlement and generic alternatives provided by other drug companies, Indivior remains one of the most dominant drug manufacturers in the medication-assisted treatment industry.
According to the data, there is a significant divergence between the popularity of Suboxone among those on MaineCare versus those with commercial, private insurance, such as an employer provided plan.
Among individuals with private insurance, the most costly drugs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 were: Humira Pen ($72.1M), Stelara ($59.6M), Enbrel ($17.9M), Trikafta ($14.8M), and Skrizi ($12.7M).
Suboxone did not make the list of the 25 most expensive drugs for the privately insured.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="35699 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=35699">11 Comments
Janit would, like all democrats, have an army of Zombies following her around.
Not free-thinking citizens.
So “ the cure “ means MORE addicts .
Stop handing out the Cure .
If you smoke cigarettes you’ll sooner or later get lung cancer .
If you use opioids you’ll sooner or later die of an overdose .
EVERYBODY knows this . It’s not rocket science .
MY TAX MONEY is NOT to save more junkies from their own chosen lifestyle .
WE DON’T HAVE THE MONEY TO CONTINUE THIS INSANITY .
Remember what Scrooge said .
Shut downs, driving business out of state, cost of living among the highest in the country, open borders, importing the third world, discriminating against churches….
None of that has helped.
In fact it’s all probably made things worse
Mills & co seem to think doing the same bad things over and over will bring different results.
Either that or they’re happy with the results like sandy said.
Mo .gov programs, Mo problems
So we are short 100 million dollars PLUS for Maine “ Care “ …. …..LESS the 26 million we’re NOT going to HAVE TO spend for this suboxone stuff .
We are making progress !
Do junkies lives matter $ 26,000,000 worth ?
Just another failed social experiment by the libs in Augusta.
$26,177,048 cost of cure DIVIDED by 7,920 drug abusers equals $ 3,305 per dose per user .
Why do I have to pay for this . Why do Maine taxpayers have to pay for this .
How many of these druggies have had more than a single dose .
What is the value of a drug addicts life here in Maine .
Why doesn’t Catholic Charities of Maine pay for this …..why am I expected to pay .
Let the people who think “ addicts lives matter “ pay for it ….
Democrats are Destroying the State of Maine
That’s insane! Taody Mills is fircing Maine taxpaers to foot the bill for feeding junkies their drugs! This insanity has to stop, and it stops with removing Mills from office!
$3300 per year on the tax payers to feed a low life druggie’s habit? This tax payer thinks a druggie can be burried for less than that.
You should see how much of this stuff is given out in our prison system!
I’m a recovering addict in Maine. 5 years sober, thanks to suboxone and clinical group therapy. One of thousands. I can tell you, the requirements to recieve suboxone do not allow for someone to simultaneously be a “junkie”. I work full time, for a company that serves all of Maine and much of New England. I pay taxes too. Nearly all the people i am in treatment with do. We’re not just “junkies”. We’re people’s children, or parents. If your mad that it’s costing the state 26 million dollars, maybe you should petition your government to stop price gouging people for medications that cost pennies on the dollar to make, instead of sentencing people to death.