Worsening the crisis

[applegrove]

By Keegan Hamilton at Vice

https://news.vice.com/story/opioid-crisis-could-get-worse-if-trump-repeals-obamacare

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As one of its last acts of 2016, Congress could drop about $1 billion on America’s drug problem by approving the 21st Century Cures Act. The bipartisan bill, which includes funds to help states combat opioid addiction and overdoses, is up for final approval in the Senate, and President Obama wants to sign it into law before he leaves office.

But even if the legislation is approved as expected, Obama won’t be around to decide exactly how the money is spent. That responsibility falls to President-elect Donald Trump and the conservative ex-surgeon from Georgia he picked to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Rep. Tom Price. Trump and Price have both vowed loudly and repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare, which some experts feel would worsen an already dire crisis.

Trump hasn’t offered many specifics about how he’ll tackle the opioid epidemic and the 78 fatal overdoses per day that come with it. The situation is especially bad in many of his stronghold states, but he gave only one speech about the issue on the campaign trail. His remarks largely focused on reducing the supply of drugs — a strategy that has failed the U.S. for decades — but he also pledged to “dramatically expand access to treatment slots and end Medicaid policies that obstruct inpatient treatment.”

At the same time, however, Trump and Price want to repeal Obamacare which gave 1.2 million people in 31 states access to addiction treatment under its expansion of Medicaid. At least another least 1.1 million people with substance abuse disorders live in states that declined to opt-in to Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion. Obamacare also made substance abuse coverage an essential health benefit, requiring insurers to pay for the services.


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