U.S. Opioid Addiction Cost $504 Billion In 2015

In 2015, the costs of opioid addiction in the United States totaled $504 billion. This equals 2.8% of the country's gross domestic product that year, and is more than six times larger than previous cost estimates.

The overall cost of opioid addiction was calculated by using two estimates—age-dependent fatality costs and age-dependent non-fatality costs. The first, age-dependent fatality costs, include loss of potential earnings due to death, plus loss of non-earnings-related contributions to family and community. The second, age-dependent non-fatality costs include health care and addiction treatment costs, criminal . . .