Cutting Medi-Cal Drug Treatment costs more than it saves and threatens public safety and health.
Cutting the Drug Medi-Cal program would:
To stop effective treatment for 35,000 addicts will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, as these sick individuals seek drugs through crime, or medical care through emergency room visits. Cutting this funding is guaranteed to cost much more than it saves, increase crime and send thousands of productive citizens back into a vicious cycle of crime and illness.
Many of these addicted individuals have infectious diseases, like HIV and hepatitis, that pose a threat to public health. Forced withdrawal will throw these people into psychiatric crisis. Many of these patients suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder. There will be suicides, and our psychiatric units will be flooded.
Studies prove that 80% of these individuals will relapse to drug use within 12 months. The governor's proposal will immediately increase crime, and cause chaos in our hospitals and other social services. The costs are much greater than the savings.
As a matter of medicine, science, public health, compassion and fiscal policy, methadone treatment must be a Medi-cal option for all opiate-dependent persons in California who could benefit from such treatment. Policies and budgets that would restrict access to methadone treatment fly in the face of science and economic common sense.