Victims of the opioid crisis, health advocates, and public policy experts have repeatedly called on state and local governments to transparently report how they’re using the funds they are receiving from settlements with opioid makers and distributors.
In many places, victims of the opioid epidemic are silenced in decision-making about how to use opioid settlement money, a first-of-its-kind survey conducted by KFF Health News and Spotlight PA found.
Millions of dollars from national opioid settlements are pouring into Mississippi. The state and localities haven’t spent much yet. In many cases, how the money will be used is up in the air.
California is in line for more than $4 billion in opioid settlement funds, and local governments are most often spending the first tranche of money on lifesaving drugs. An exclusive KFF Health News analysis also found projects to help police deter youths’ drug use and counsel officers who witness overdoses.
In what will certainly be remembered as a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has overruled a 40-year-old precedent that gave federal agencies, rather than judges, the power to interpret ambiguous laws passed by Congress. Administrative experts say the decision will dramatically change the way key health agencies do business. Also, the court decided not to decide whether a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care overrides Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.
The court struck down a $6 billion bankruptcy plan from Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. What does this mean? We’ll explain.
KFF Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
As billions of dollars from settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors go to state and local governments, efforts to reduce the epidemic’s harm can be hamstrung by drug paraphernalia laws. Health authorities say distributing clean syringes to users can save lives, but in states like Pennsylvania, it may be illegal.
A recent broadcast of “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” frequently cited KFF Health News in its examination of how billions of dollars from the opioid settlements are being spent.
Hundreds of Native American tribes are getting money from settlements with companies that made or sold prescription painkillers. Some are investing it in sweat lodges, statistical models, and insurance-billing staffers.
