Currently, only some states offer Narcan for free and some health insurance plans will provide it with a $0 copay. Naloxone or Narcan is a medication that reverses an opioid overdose for 30 to 90 minutes, but Kariisa says access needs to be increased. “If people are not insured, their out-of-pocket costs could be different than somebody who has insurance,” she says. But with more than 31 million people (about the population of California) are without health insurance in the U.S, affordability of the drug can range from $0 to $83.11 Kariisa says. “It has been more commonly available for white patients than for Black patients.”īuprenorphine is a take-home drug prescribed as a replacement in the treatment of heroin and methadone dependence - in 2015 the average cost for the prescribed treatment was $32. “Historically there’s been racial disparities when it comes to accessibility of buprenorphine,” Kariisa said. Prior to the pandemic, medical professionals required in-clinic visits for methadone use which created a barrier for some patients - now individuals can take this treatment at home. Two commonly used drugs to treat opioid use disorders include buprenorphine and methadone but the drugs are often associated with additional barriers. “It involves essentially tailoring our programs or efforts around the community specifically to help meet them where they are.” Racial Disparities & Stigmas Keep Black People From Life-Saving Treatment “There’s ways to get around some of the access barriers,” she says. When asked what improving accessibility looks like, Kariisa says it involves several things like lowering costs of transportation so individuals seeking treatment can afford to get to their appointments, offering telehealth appointments so people do not have to travel long distances to get to their provider, and offering structural support like housing and childcare assistance. ‘We know that just because services available does not mean it’s accessible,” she said. And, many of these services are based in more densely populated areas, where drug use and overdose death rates are more likely. MBABAZI KARIISA, HEALTH SCIENTISTįor starters, Kariisa says a lot of these services are not distributed equally across the country. I want to stress that these drug overdoses are preventable. Meaning, the more services available to people struggling with substance use, the higher the overdose death rates - a surprising find, but Karissa says multiple factors may play a role in this. “We found that generally as there was more, sort of, availability for treating substance use disorders or mental health disorders, there was also higher overdose death rates,” Kariisa says.

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