GOP health bills are a disaster for opioid crisis
America’s addiction crisis is the defining public health challenge of our time. In 2015, more than 52,000 Americans died of drug overdoses, the majority related to opioids — far more than died from car accidents. More than 20 million Americans live with substance use disorders, leading to immeasurable suffering and costing our nation a staggering $442 billion in health care costs, lost productivity and criminal justice expenses.
Tragically, the American Health Care Act passed by the House would be a major step backward in addressing the addiction epidemic, and the Senate is on the same harmful path.
Wherever I traveled as surgeon general, from Rust Belt cities to remote Alaskan fishing villages, I saw the toll of addiction on individuals and families who struggled with treatment shortages and the loss of loved ones to opioid overdoses. These stories compelled me to launch the Turn the Tide Rx initiative to improve opioid prescribing and to issue the first Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health last year.
Crystal Oertle was one person whose story stuck with me. She wrestled with opioid addiction for more than a decade. She started taking Vicodin at 20 and eventually progressed to heroin. She knew she was putting herself and her two children in danger. Yet each time she tried to stop, the crippling symptoms of withdrawal pulled her back.
Fortunately, Crystal found a treatment program in her small Ohio town in 2015. It offered reg- ular meetings with a doctor, group counseling and a reliable prescription for buprenorphine — an evidence-based scientific approach known as MedicationAssisted Treatment. With time, treatment and hard work, Crystal rebuilt her life.
A successful recovery like Crystal’s almost always requires insurance coverage that includes treatment for substance use disorders. The 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded Medicaid coverage to millions of people, including many living with substance use disorders. Senators from both parties have publicly acknowledged the Medicaid expansion’s importance in improving access to addiction treatment. But the House and Senate bills would take it away.
In addition, before the ACA, a third of those in the individual market were not covered for such disorders. People would often find out too late that their plans did not pay for the care they needed. The ACA changed this by requiring that all insurance plans cover addiction treatment as an essential health benefit.
The House and Senate bills would once again allow insurance companies to opt out of providing this treatment. Ultimately, they would place coverage out of reach and weaken patient protections for millions struggling with addiction.
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” It’s time to put people over politics and expand coverage and access to addiction treatment for millions of Americans who need it.