The gov blames the opioid crisis for the reduction, but I think it is a product of our terrible medical system which is based on money and not care. I keep reading how medical costs from big Pharma is skyrocketing, it is a kind of extortion..."pay up or die".

A lady in Boston got her leg caught in the gap between a train last week. She was bloody and in agony and she pleaded with the people who came to help her not to call an ambulance because she could not afford the cost. It is shameful.

The following from a NYT editorial.

“In the face of a grave injury, a series of calculations follow: The clear and urgent need for medical attention is weighed against the uncertain and potentially monumental expense of even basic services, like a bandage or a ride to the hospital, and that cost, in turn, weighed against all the known expenses of living that run through any given head on any given day,” the editorial board wrote. “This discord, between agony and arithmetic, has become America’s story, too.”

The medical profession and its associated industries have too much money too much power and very little compassion. I think the idea of medicare for all is needed now and the government must be able to negotiate with medical providers. What we have now is a sad joke.