Ron Johnson links Medicaid to opioid crisis during hearing

Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson said Wednesday that the Medicaid program may have been a "contributing factor" that led to an increase in the nation's opioid crisis.

"This is a government program wide phenomenon where American taxpayers are providing well-intentioned funds into some of theses programs and those funds are being utilized to divert drugs, sell them on the open market," Johnson said during a hearing in Washington, D.C.

Johnson chairs the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. He opposed the Affordable Care Act, which included an expansion of Medicaid.

"I'm not making the claim that this is just because of Medicaid expansion," Johnson said at the outset of the hearing.

Johnson released a report from the committee's Republican staff titled, "Drugs for Dollars: How Medicaid Helps Fuel the Opioid Epidemic."

While acknowledging there are many causes to the country's opioid epidemic, the report asks, "What if one of the contributing causes is connected to federal spending itself?"

Reviewing court cases and other data, the report concludes, "Medicaid has contributed to the nation’s opioid epidemic by establishing a series of incentives that make it enormously profitable to abuse and sell dangerous drugs."

"Growing evidence indicates that the Medicaid expansion, by providing prescription opioids to a wider pool of people, may be worsening the epidemic," the report contends.

The report says "at least 1,072 people have been convicted or charged nationwide since 2010 for improperly using Medicaid to obtain prescription opioids, some of which were then resold on the nation’s streets. The number of criminal defendants increased 18%  in the four years after Medicaid expanded, 2014-2017, compared to the four years prior to Medicaid expansion."

RELATED:Johnson: Medicaid spending is a contributing cause of America's opioid epidemic

Of the 298 separate Medicaid-opioids cases identified, more than 80% were filed in Medicaid expansion states, the report says.

"Other preliminary data suggests a connection between Medicaid expansion and opioid abuse," the report says. "Drug overdose deaths per one million people are rising nearly twice as fast in expansion states as non-expansion states, while opioid-related hospital stays paid for by Medicaid massively spiked after expansion."

Andrew Kolodny, a psychiatrist and addiction specialist who is co-director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, said in his testimony that he did not think Medicaid should be singled out in the opioid crisis.

"Opioid overdoses have been increasing in people with all types of insurance and in people from all economic groups, from rich to poor," Kolodny said in his prepared testimony. "Overdoses have increased in people with Medicaid, Medicare and Commercial insurance. They have also increased in people without insurance. Where we have seen the fastest-growing share of hospitalizations for opioid overdose has been Medicare, not Medicaid."

Kolodny said Fentanyl has been the primary driver of the surge in opioid deaths, and not Medicaid expansion.

U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), who missed the hearing because of the flu, also pushed back at Johnson in prepared testimony.

McCaskill said, "This idea that Medicaid expansion is fueling the rise in opioid deaths is total hogwash. It is not supported by the facts. And I am concerned that this committee is using taxpayer dollars to push out this misinformation to advance a political agenda."