The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Kasich, Gee group to push opioid settlement
COLUMBUS >> West Virginia University President Gordon Gee and former Ohio Gov. John Kasich are creating a nonprofit that will fight to steer cash from any national opioid settlement to hospitals, rather than to local and state governments already sparring for control of the dollars.
Gee and Kasich say Citizens for Effective Opioid Treatment, a 501(c)4 organization announced Thursday, will educate policymakers and the public about the negative impact the opioid epidemic has had on health care infrastructure and advance health-related research solutions to the crisis.
“It’s an educational effort,” Gee said. “We want to help people understand that this is a crisis and that the caregivers — the hospitals, in particular — are really leading the charge in order to be able to both give care and solve the problem.”
The duo’s plan is the latest move in a tug-of-war over what to do with the potential billions that could flow from a national opioid settlement with drugmakers and distributors, if one is reached. Some individual settlements with counties and states have already been reached and larger pharmaceutical companies could yet cut deals as the clock ticks toward the first trial, which is set for October.
Local governments are asking the Cleveland-based federal judge who is overseeing the majority of more than 2,000 lawsuits over the toll of opioids to let them distribute money among themselves. They say being able to negotiate as a group on behalf of all or most local governments would make it possible to reach a deal with the industry. They argue the crisis has hit local governments especially hard as they’ve needed to spend more on police, jails and other programs.
Most state attorneys general oppose that plan, saying the states would be in the best position to dole out money to local governments and to create larger scale prevention and treatment programs.
Both Gee and Kasich said their nonprofit isn’t intended as an attack on local governments. But Kasich, who was criticized as governor for cuts to the state’s local government fund, said large sums of undedicated money can tend to migrate.
“I’m not here to kind of tell the attorney generals what to do. If they can get a settlement and these communities can be reimbursed, good for them,” he said.
“But I don’t want the money to go to fill potholes or to fill a budget gap or something like that. I want the money to go to the people who are on the front lines, because they are right up against the wall.”