Obamacare repeal could hurt drug treatment
Top Delaware officials worry Republicans' plans to overturn the Affordable Care Act could impair their efforts to battle drug abuse and mental illness.
"One of the reasons Medicaid is so important is that Medicaid provides behavioral health care and drug treatment," Sen. Tom Carper told an audience at the Dover office of Connections, the state's largest nonprofit provider of drug treatment care. "It's the single largest provider of this kind of coverage. Unfortunately, the bill that's in the [U.S. House of Representatives] would substantially erode that kind of coverage."
Earlier this month, House Republicans unveiled their proposal to replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare. They have been clamoring to repeal the law for years but now have the power to do so, given their wins in November gave them control of both houses of Congress and the White House.
Among the many changes to the law, the House bill scales back the ACA's expansion of the federal Medicaid program, which helps pay for health care for low-income Americans. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that 14 million people would lose insurance if the House plan were to take effect; by 2026, that number would grow to 26 million.
Read more: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/politics/2017/03/16/drug-abuse-cuts/99257912/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I know people in treatment - and I heard about yet another OD just last night - so this scares me to death. And I live in a fairly rural area, small town America, but this is an epidemic and affects every part of the country. It's not a joke, people really are going to die. 
Opioid addiction treatment faces cuts with new GOP plan
Medicaid caps and changing eligibility criteria proposed in the Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act could drastically curtail access to opioid addiction treatment, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office released earlier this week.
“I worry anytime access to health care services is going to be cut,” said Susan Roberts-McManus, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the Washington and Warren County Centers for Recovery at Glens Falls Hospital. “Related to the Medicaid funding, we are concerned if they don’t have access to services.”
In a report released on Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation, analysts point to such caps and a nearly 25 percent pullback over time of Medicaid eligibility for individuals who currently qualify as Medicaid expanded adults under the Affordable Care Act.
Under this expanded coverage, treatment for opioid addiction, including buprenorphine medication-assisted treatment, millions of Americans have been able to receive treatment for addictions.
“The decreased availability of these services will seriously impact those seeking treatment with Suboxone or Vivitrol,” said Charles Moak, director of outpatient services at Conifer Park in Glens Falls on Friday. “Many of these individuals have already required Narcan reversals due to overdose. We shouldn’t be losing individuals due to lack of life-saving services.”
http://poststar.com/news/local/opioid-addiction-treatment-faces-cuts-with-new-gop-plan/article_9cd32ba8-2e5b-5393-8dc2-6d3ebec64302.html