A new wave of lawsuits is accusing companies that produce and distribute opioids of increasing health insurance costs across the country.
In five proposed class action lawsuits filed Wednesday, plaintiffs say the addiction resulting from the over-prescribing of opioids caused residents and businesses in each of the states – California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York – to pay more in health insurance costs.
The suits do not specify damages, but seek to represent everyone who has bought a private health insurance policy in those states since 1996, the year Purdue Pharma introduced its opioid painkiller OxyContin.
“Insurance companies factored in the unwarranted and exorbitant healthcare costs of opioid-related coverage caused by defendants and charged that back to insureds in the form of higher premiums, deductibles, and co-payments,” according to the complaint.
In 2016, deaths associated with opioid overdoses climbed to 42,000, and just under half of them were tied to prescription drugs while others were tied to illegal drugs such as heroin and fentanyl. Most people who use heroin first began abusing the prescription, causing severe addictions, climbing death tolls and expensive medical bills associated with treatment.
The suits, brought on behalf of people and businesses who have paid for health insurance in the five states represent a new front in litigation seeking to hold corporations accountable for the opioid crisis.
The corporations named in the suit include drugmakers Purdue, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Endo International, and distributors AmerisourceBergen Corp., Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp.
The drugmakers and distributors are facing hundreds of other lawsuits across the country brought by cities and states who face expensive costs associated with opioid-related death tolls and drug addiction.
The Healthcare Distribution Alliance, a trade association representing distributors, including AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson, said that holding its members responsible for opioid prescriptions “defies common sense and lacks understanding of how the pharmaceutical supply chain actually works and is regulated.
“The misuse and abuse of prescription opioids is a complex public health challenge that requires a collaborative and systemic response that engages all stakeholders,” said John Parker, senior vice president at the Healthcare Distribution Alliance. “Those bringing lawsuits would be better served addressing the root causes, rather than trying to redirect blame through litigation.”
The latest lawsuits similarly say that manufacturers lied about how addictive and harmful their drugs were and that the accuse the drug distributors of doing nothing to stop loads of opioids from being prescribed.
