Recently Walmart settled a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice for charges that Walmart ignored concerns from its pharmacists that certain prescribers were running “pill mills,” giving patients prescription for opioids without adequate medical justification. Walmart, which had net income of $11.7 billion for the first half of this year, settled for $50 million, which the retailer described as “immaterial.”
In 2022, Walmart agreed to pay $3.1 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits by state and local governments over the retail giant’s role in the opioid crisis. It is estimated that more than 905,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2025 alone.
The most recent settlement requires Walmart to “address future obligations in dispensing controlled substances.” It doesn’t do anything to help people who are currently addicted to opiates.
One way Walmart could help would be to accept GoodRx discounts for buprenorphine/naloxone (Suboxone) — a medication proven to reduce opioid overdose deaths and help people with opioid use disorder reclaim their lives.
Walmart accepts GoodRx discount coupons for Viagra. Walmart accepts GoodRx discount coupons for Adderall. As a psychiatric nurse practitioner, I find it deeply concerning that there are no discounts for Suboxone.
I treat patients with substance use disorder every day. I have watched people rebuild relationships, return to work, parent their children and regain stability because of medications like Suboxone. I have also seen what happens when people cannot access treatment.
Suboxone is not “just replacing one drug with another.” That stigma is outdated, inaccurate and dangerous. Suboxone works differently than full opioids, has a ceiling effect that makes it significantly safer and is one of the most evidence-based treatments we have for opioid use disorder. It has been around for decades. It is generic. It saves lives.
So why are uninsured and underinsured patients facing additional barriers to obtaining it? Why are we still treating addiction like a moral failure instead of a medical condition? Patients with substance use disorder deserve dignity, affordable healthcare and access to life-saving treatment — not more stigma. We should be making treatment easier to access, not harder.
It seems if Walmart can provide discounts for Adderall (another drug that when misused is very high addictive) and Viagra (which certainly doesn’t save anyone’s life), it could provide discount programs for medications that prevent overdose and death. If the corporations choose not to participate, they should at least be transparent about why. Walmart did not respond to questions about this emailed to their press office.
People struggling with addiction are human beings. Their lives matter.
Brianna Danley Austin, MSN, APRN, PMHNP