Barbara McAneny, president of the American Medical Association, recently described a patient with metastatic prostate cancer who tried to kill himself after he could not get the medication he was prescribed for bone pain because a suspicious pharmacist called his insurer, which denied coverage. “I share the nation’s concern that more than 100 people a day die of an overdose,” she said. “But my patient nearly died of an underdose.”
McAneny was talking about the suffering caused by government pressure to reduce opioid prescriptions, which has led to denials of treatment and arbitrary dose reductions across the country. A Medicare rule that take effect on January 1 will compound that problem, Jacob Sullum says, even as it becomes increasingly clear that the “opioid crisis” is driven by consumption of illicitly produced drugs rather than prescribed medication.
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