A lady reached for a dose of methadone on the Behavioral Well being Community opioid remedy clinic.
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As Republican lawmakers seek for deep spending cuts, a rising variety of critics worry a roll-back of Medicaid {dollars} spent serving to People slammed by the road fentanyl disaster.
A report released Monday by Democrats on the Congressional Joint Economic Committee warned medical remedy for greater than one million individuals within the U.S. now receiving medical remedy for opioid dependancy, together with fentanyl, might be affected.
“President Trump and Congressional Republicans have proposed gutting Medicaid— with a view to pay for tax breaks for company particular pursuits and billionaires — which might jeopardize dependancy care simply as our nation is lastly beginning to see progress in addressing the fentanyl disaster,” mentioned Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, in a press release.
During the last decade, as extra states expanded Medicaid protection beneath provisions of the Inexpensive Care Act, this system emerged because the main supply of insurance coverage protection for prime quality dependancy remedy within the U.S.
A study released in February by the Brookings Establishment, a centrist think-tank that focuses extensively on drug coverage points, discovered practically 90 % of medical remedy for opioid and fentanyl dependancy within the U.S. is paid for not less than partly by way of Medicaid.
Most drug coverage consultants say that funding helped scale back drug overdose deaths, which plunged 26.6 percent nationwide from June 2023 to October 2024, based on the most recent provisional information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
However the Inexpensive Care Act stays a goal for a lot of GOP lawmakers, who view the Obama-era program with suspicion. Whereas it is not but clear how Republican finances proposals will impression Medicaid and its function in drug remedy, Home GOP leaders have floated concepts that embody slashing as much as $2.3 trillion from this system over the following decade.
Home Funds Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, proper, and Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., have each known as for main cuts to Medicaid which grew into a serious supply of dependancy remedy funding beneath the Inexpensive Care Act.
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Speaking over the weekend with Fox News, Home Speaker Mike Johnson instructed younger males, who’re extremely weak to drug dependancy and account for the overwhelming majority of U.S. overdose deaths, mustn’t qualify for Medicaid insurance coverage.
“We have now to remove individuals for instance on Medicaid who will not be eligible to be there, able-bodied employees, for instance, younger males, who ought to by no means be on this system in any respect,” Johnson mentioned.
Analysis reveals men are two to three times more likely to die from drug deaths, in contrast with girls; and fentanyl is now a number one reason for loss of life for males beneath the age of fifty.
A rising variety of dependancy researchers, docs and individuals who survived drug dependancy have raised alarm deep Medicaid cuts may derail the nationwide restoration from the fentanyl-overdose epidemic.
“It is very onerous to take a look at the finances framework created by Republicans and picture a situation aside from Medicaid being minimize severely,” mentioned Stanford College’s Keith Humphreys talking with NPR final month. “It is a horrifying prospect. That will likely be extraordinarily painful for households going through dependancy.”
In a press release, Dr. Brian Hurley, head of the American Society of Dependancy Drugs, urged lawmakers to guard Medicaid growth for People going through dependancy.
“It not solely helps states pay for evidence-based dependancy remedy…but it surely additionally undermines the drug cartels’ enterprise mannequin by decreasing demand for illicit opioids,” Hurley mentioned.
The Brookings Establishment report concluded {that a} main rollback of Medicaid growth may drastically scale back dependancy care nationwide.
“Since Medicaid funds for remedy of OUD [opioid use disorder] dwarfs all different public sources of funding for OUD care, vital reductions would considerably scale back the nation’s financial dedication to addressing the opioid epidemic,” the Brookings report discovered.
