Medicaid cuts could slash fentanyl addiction treatment : NPR

As Republican lawmakers seek for deep spending cuts, a rising variety of critics concern a roll-back of Medicaid {dollars} spent serving to People slammed by the road fentanyl disaster.

A report launched Monday by Democrats on the Congressional Joint Financial Committee warned medical remedy for greater than one million folks within the U.S. now receiving medical remedy for opioid dependancy, together with fentanyl, could possibly be affected.

“President Trump and Congressional Republicans have proposed gutting Medicaid— so as 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,” stated Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat from New Hampshire, in a press release.

During the last decade, as extra states expanded Medicaid protection underneath 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 examine launched in February by the Brookings Establishment, a centrist think-tank that focuses extensively on drug coverage points, discovered practically 90 p.c of medical remedy for opioid and fentanyl dependancy within the U.S. is paid for no less than partly by way of Medicaid.

“You have seen a revolution within the financing of substance use remedy in the US. There’s been extra money put into the substance use remedy system within the final 15 years, because the Inexpensive Care Act, than within the earlier fifty years,” stated that research writer Richard Frank. “It is enormously essential to acknowledge the positive factors which have been made.”

Most drug coverage consultants say that funding helped cut back drug overdose deaths, which plunged 26.6 p.c nationwide from June 2023 to October 2024, in accordance with 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 influence Medicaid and its position in drug remedy, Home GOP leaders have floated concepts that embrace slashing as a lot as $2.3 trillion from this system over the following decade.

Home Finances Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, proper, and Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson, R-La., have each referred to as for main cuts to Medicaid which grew into a serious supply of dependancy remedy funding underneath the Inexpensive Care Act.

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Talking over the weekend on the Fox Information program Sunday Morning Futures, Home Speaker Mike Johnson urged 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.

“Now we have to eradicate folks for instance on Medicaid who are usually not 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 stated.

Analysis reveals males are two to 3 instances extra prone to die from drug deaths, in contrast with ladies; and fentanyl is now a number one reason behind demise for males underneath 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’s totally arduous to have a look at the finances framework created by Republicans and picture a state of affairs aside from Medicaid being minimize severely,” stated Stanford College’s Keith Humphreys talking with NPR final month. “It is a scary prospect. That shall be extraordinarily painful for households going through dependancy.”

In a press release, Dr. Brian Hurley, head of the American Society of Habit Medication, urged lawmakers to guard Medicaid growth for People going through dependancy.

“It not solely helps states pay for evidence-based dependancy remedy…nevertheless it additionally undermines the drug cartels’ enterprise mannequin by decreasing demand for illicit opioids,” Hurley stated.

The Brookings Establishment report concluded {that a} main rollback of Medicaid growth may drastically cut 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 cut back the nation’s financial dedication to addressing the opioid epidemic,” the Brookings report discovered.