According to media reports, the payout from the opioid settlements could be ostensibly less to states than what many originally believed. Many plaintiff lawyers are coming to believe the payout from opioid makers and distributors will be far less than was paid out from the 1998 Tobacco settlement. Some estimates have indicated that the total payout would likely be between $75 and $85 billion. This amount pales in comparison to the economic toll of the opioid crisis, which according to a report released in October 2019 by the Federal Council of Economic Advisers was more than $2.5 trillion over the four year period from 2015 through 2018.