Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Casey: Plan will worsen opiate crisis
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act must be stopped because the cuts it will make to Medicaid will amplify the heroin epidemic — since so many rely on the program for addiction treatment.
“This is a critical time for the opioid epidemic and a critically important time for Medicaid because of the connection between the two,” he said. “In the midst of this terrible crisis, Republicans want to roll back Medicaid expansion.”
Casey held a press conference with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and several police chiefs Tuesday to talk about the severity of the opioid epidemic and its tie to Medicaid and its expansion.
Senate Republicans have been drafting their health care plan behind closed doors; it is expected to be released on Thursday and voted on next week.
In a report he issued titled, “The Republican Health Care Plan: Retreating from the Fight Against the Opioid Epidemic,” Casey noted that 33,000 of the 52,000 people who died in 2015 from a drug overdose were linked to opioids. In Pennsylvania, that number was 1,300 out of 3,200 overdose deaths in the same year.
“So now, across the country, more people die from drug overdoses than car crashes,” Casey said.
And, many receive care through public sources, including the 175,000 Pennsylvanians receiving substance abuse disorder services through the Medicaid expansion, according to the Casey report.
It also stated that 14 million
people stand to lose medical coverage next year through the Republicans’ American Health Care Act and that up to $5.5 billion could be potentially cut for mental health and substance use disorder coverage provisions in changes made to the ACA.
Steve Kelly, spokesman for U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said the expansion would stay in place.
“Any Senate health care bill will keep the Medicaid expansion; Sen. Toomey has said on multiple occasions that no one will lose their federal Medicaid eligibility and no one currently covered by Obamacare will have the rug pulled out from under them,” he said.
Furthermore, Kelly explained there are multiple avenues for paying for addiction recovery.
“Federal funding for opioid and heroin addiction treatment also comes from a variety of sources including the bipartisan Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act and the 21st Century Cures Act, which Sen. Toomey supported,” he said. “Meanwhile, Sen. Toomey is continuing his work to protect families and communities from painkiller and heroin abuse and to ensure there is appropriate funding to help Pennsylvania fight back against this terrible scourge.”
Although the Senate Republican health care plan hasn’t been publicized, Casey said he was basing his opinion on the theory that the Senate version was going to contain 80 percent of what the house bill had.
“No matter how much they try to supplement this bill with other money, tweaks or changes, what we’re going to get from Republicans is going to be very bad,” Casey said. “It’s really an insult to all the families across the country who are so relieved their family or loved one is in recovery because
of the Medicaid expansion.”
Manchin said any onetime grant Republicans may propose will not be sufficient to combat the crisis.
In addition, he said any shortfall will lay before individual states to find funding.
Some law enforcement officials offered their support.
“It is my opinion this is the most pressing public safety problem that the country is facing,” Berwick Police Chief Ken Strish said. “I support Sen. Casey. Law enforcement can’t arrest their way out of this crisis because addiction is a disease, not a crime.”
Matt Vanyo, police chief of Olmstead, Ohio, said his community has had 513 fatalities in the first six months of this year due to the epidemic.
He said there have been 100 intakes in their Safe Passages Program for drug treatment and 99 percent of them were opiate addictions and 80 percent of those were on Medicaid.
He spoke of a 30-yearold man named Brent who became addicted to opiates after several motorcycle accidents. Police were called to his home because he was overdosing; they saved him with Narcan. The next day, he walked into the police station and asked for help.
“We found him some recovery ... because he had Medicaid,” Vanyo said. “If Medicaid is going to be cut over time, of course, it’s going to have a negative effect on those people and our communities.”
Mike Ward, police chief of Alexandria, Kentucky, had stronger words.
“Our loss of Medicaid is literally going to kill people in Kentucky,” he said.
Ward asked all community members to collaborate to end this.
“It’s not a law enforcement issue, it is a community issue,” he said. “We have to pull together and work together and hopefully, we can save people’s lives.”