PENNY WISE---AND PILL FOOLISH

Kentucky's future is "wasting away" because of prescription pill abuse Gov Beshear and a host of public and medical leaders said this week. No argument here.

So surprise!

Kentucky is one of seven states with NO abuse treatment program for people on Medicaid.

This makes no sense; from a medical standpoint or from a human viewpoint.

And even less from a fiscal viewpoint as a story in the Herald-Leader points out. Treatment under Medicaid is estimated to cost payers $2500 on average, but if an adult goes to prison for drug law violations it costs at least $23,000 to treat them.

Even in these times of great budget constraints, this is a good return on investment for citizens. And there are collateral benefits. Get adults off pills and you lower: traffic accidents (including fatalities), robberies and break-ins, child abuse by pill-popping-parents, crimes of all sorts, the list goes on and on and on and all the way to Florida.

Beyond stopping our "wasting away", and lowering crimes of all kinds, setting up such treatment programs within Medicaid, allocating the money now to pay for them is simply, the right thing to do for our fellow Kentuckians who right now can't help themselves...or us.

I'm just sayin'...