Medicaid cuts threaten programs that saved me

Ohio is among the states hardest hit by the opioid epidemic that now kills more than 91 people a day, according to the Center for Disease Control. Drug overdoses kill more people than car accidents, guns and HIV; they’re the leading cause of accidental death in the nation.

Despite politicians’ promises of action, there’s no sign of opioid use letting up anytime soon. The sheer scope of the problem is putting a strain on the health-care system, on the foster-care system, and most of all on the families who are losing children, parents, sisters and brothers.

As a recovering heroin addict, I know about this epidemic first-hand. For years, I spent nearly every hour of each day looking for my next hit of heroin, stopping at nothing to appease the addiction. For too long, I was uninsured and didn’t have the resources to pay out of pocket for treatment. I couldn’t see any way out of the cycle of addiction.

It was only after Ohio expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act that I realized that I had an option to end this addiction by getting treatment. I qualified for Medicaid and got covered, providing me with the means to attend a 28-day treatment program. There was a five-week waiting period for placement because there was only one treatment program for the entire Youngstown area.

Thanks to Medicaid and access to recovery treatment, I have now been free from addiction for 35 months. I am living proof that recovery is possible when treatment is accessible.

Medicaid brought hope to thousands like me. To address the needs of thousands more, politicians ought to be protecting and expanding Medicaid for more Ohioans, not repealing Medicaid and cutting services.

Along with West Virginia, New Hampshire, Kentucky and Rhode Island, Ohio is in the top-five list of states that have the highest rates of drug-overdose deaths. There are more overdoses per capita in Dayton than anywhere else, with the death toll expected to reach 800 by the end of the year. With this epidemic spreading fast and furiously, close to 10,000 deaths from overdose are expected statewide by the end of 2017.

President Donald Trump is right that this is a national disaster, but he’s done little to address it. In fact, most proposals he’s supported so far would make things a lot worse.

Repealing the Affordable Care Act and making deep cuts to Medicaid in the federal budget would take health care away from the more than 1 million Ohioans who got coverage under the ACA. That jeopardizes recovery and treatment for tens of thousands of people like me. Without access to comprehensive health-care services, including mental-health services and treatment for substance-abuse disorders, recovery is impossible.

Many of the repeal proposals would have put recovery out of reach even for people with private insurance. Repeal bills like Graham-Cassidy proposed waiving requirements that insurance companies cover mental-health care, including substance abuse as part of a standard package called essential health benefits. Prescription-drug coverage and hospitalization — also essential health benefits often required by people recovering from addiction — also would have been waived or would have cost extra under some of the repeal proposals.

Congress ultimately failed to pass the Republican repeal bills, but the danger to health care isn’t over. Congress just passed a federal budget resolution that cuts more than $1 trillion from Medicaid. What’s worse is that cut will pay for massive tax breaks for the rich and corporations, including pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, which sells overprescribed opioids like OxyContin that fuel pill mills and helped create this epidemic.

If Ohio’s congressional delegation and politicians in Washington, D.C., seriously want to curb this crisis, they can start by refusing to reward the drug companies partially responsible for the epidemic with big tax breaks paid for with cuts in the ACA, Medicare and Medicaid — the very programs we depend on most for treatment. Federal efforts should focus on expanding access to affordable health care, investments in prevention and efforts to limit overprescription of opioids — not on taking away health care from people like me.