The US opioid epidemic ravaging American communities cost over $500 billion in 2015, more expensive than previously thought, according to a new analysis by the US government.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers said Monday that the true cost of the crisis in 2015 was $504 billion, more than six times the most recent estimate.
The council said a 2016 private study estimated that prescription opioid overdoes, abuse and dependence in the US in 2013 cost $78.5 billion.
Most of that expense was attributed to health care and criminal justice spending, along with lost productivity.
“Previous estimates of the economic cost of the opioid crisis greatly underestimate it by undervaluing the most important component of the loss — fatalities resulting from overdoses,” the report said.
US President Donald Trump said Monday at a cabinet meeting in the White House that the “opioid epidemic that is ravaging so many American families and…