Fact Sheet On Substance Abuse

Treatment Reduces Health Care Costs

Blue Cross/Blue Shield found that families' health care costs dropped by 50 percent after treatment, showing a reduction from $ 100 a month in the 2 years prior to treatment to $13.34 per month in the fifth year after treatment(10).
Aetna Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan showed overall health care costs of alcoholics rose from $130 to $1,370 per month prior to treatment; three years after treatment health care costs were $190 per month(11).
Two years after treatment, participants showed a 40 percent reduction in health care costs (presented: Association for Health Services Research, annual meeting, 1993)(12).
Alcohol Health & Research World reported findings that 50 percent of the costs of alcohol and drug abuse treatment are offset within one year by subsequent reductions in medical costs by the affected family, and not just the primary patient(13).
Injecting drug use is the primary mode of transmission of HIV among women, and is responsible for 71 percent of AIDS cases among women(14). During treatment, 4 percent of participants became HIV-positive, compared with 16 percent among those who were not in treatment (15). The lifetime costs to care for one AIDS patient are roughly $85,000(16).
$43,000 to $145,000 can be saved for each pregnancy and delivery uncomplicated by alcohol or substance abuse. In a CSAT-funded program(17). ; 95 percent of women reported uncomplicated, drug-free births after one year of treatment (18).

Treatment Reduces Crime and Violence & Supports Law Enforcement

Criminal behavior decreased by 95 percent during treatment, and by 76 percent one year after treatment (19).
In California, criminal behavior decreased after one year in treatments:(20)
Drug sales dropped by 68 percent
Breaking and entering dropped by 61 percent
Selling sex dropped by 54 percent
Use of weapon/physical force dropped by 75 percen

In Oregon, treatment provided in 1991-92 resulted in more than 58,000 fewer crimes in the three years that followed(21).