* The “scourge” of the opioid epidemic will worsen if Medicaid health insurance programs are cut back as proposed in the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Joe Manchin and law-enforcement leaders said Tuesday. “This is a critical time for the opioid epidemic and a critically important time for Medicaid because of the connection between the two,” said Casey, D-Scranton.
* Since Medicaid was expanded in Pennsylvania and more state residents have become eligible for premium tax credits, about 175,000 Pennsylvanians in need received substance use-disorder services through wider health insurance availability.
* According to the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, 14 million Medicaid recipients nationwide could lose their insurance. The House plan proposed an $834 billion cut to Medicaid nationwide over the next decade, meaning less money to support seniors, low-income children and people fighting substance addiction.
Beaver County Times: Sen. Casey: If Medicaid is cut, opioid epidemic will worsen
By Kate Malongowski
The “scourge” of the opioid epidemic will worsen if Medicaid health insurance programs are cut back as proposed in the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and Joe Manchin and law-enforcement leaders said Tuesday.
“This is a critical time for the opioid epidemic and a critically important time for Medicaid because of the connection between the two,” said Casey, D-Scranton.
More people have been dying from drug overdoses locally and regionally despite concerted efforts to address the issue. According to the Beaver County coroner’s office, there were 102 overdose deaths in the county in 2016 and 29 deaths in the first quarter of this year.
Since Medicaid was expanded in Pennsylvania and more state residents have become eligible for premium tax credits, about 175,000 Pennsylvanians in need received substance use-disorder services through wider health insurance availability.
“In the midst of this terrible crisis, Republicans want to roll back the Medicaid expansion and the premium assistance that have been so important to families fighting to get their loved ones treatment,” Casey said.
According to the U.S. House-passed American Health Care Act, 14 million Medicaid recipients nationwide could lose their insurance.
Casey and Manchin, D-W.Va., said they still don’t know what the bill will look like when presented in the Senate for a vote.
“The bill that we’re facing right now is going to be devastating from the standpoint of the services that we’re able to give and try to start fighting this epidemic, and you’ve gotta have treatment,” Manchin said.
Essentially, the proposed bill could be felt most in West Virginia, where opioid use per capita is the worst in the country, Manchin said.
“In fiscal year 2016, more than 50,000 Medicaid expansion members were diagnosed with a substance-abuse disorder,” he said. “The state received $112 million in federal funding in Medicaid to provide services to those people. That will go away. Those types of things and assistance that we’re able to do will go away.
“… The state’s going to have to come up with an exorbitant amount of money in order to be able to give services,” Manchin said.
In Beaver County, as of December 2015, 35,074 residents were enrolled in Medicaid, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, up from 29,634 in December 2014.
With federal health-care legislation now awaiting a Senate vote, how Medicaid coverage could change is up in the air. But in the House version of the bill, millions could lose Medicaid health insurance.
Law-enforcement leaders from Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky spoke out about how cutting back Medicaid could hinder their efforts to fight the opioid epidemic.
Berwick Police Chief Ken Strish, who oversees a town of 10,000 about 30 miles outside of Wilkes-Barre, said he’s witnessed the opioid problem worsen firsthand.
“We’re widely considered a lower-socioeconomic area, so availability to Medicaid for my community is exceptionally important. There are many residents in Berwick who are battling drug addiction, and drug-related crime has simply become a constant,” Strish said. “The drug arrests have doubled and tripled annually over the last five years. Drug addiction and drug-related crime is an absolute scourge on our community.”
Without or with limited Medicaid coverage, it will be more difficult for those with an opioid-use disorder to seek rehabilitation or other treatment.
Meanwhile, Olmsted Township Police Chief Matt Vanyo, who oversees an Ohio town about 20 miles west of Cleveland, said a safe-passages program initiated last year linking those with an opioid-use disorder to treatment facilities have mostly been Medicaid recipients.
“I’m in full support of Medicaid, because if Medicaid is going to be cut over time … it’s going to have a negative effect on those people and our communities,” Vanyo said. “We’re going to have more increases of overdose deaths, and you’re going to see these people who don’t have the coverage continue to commit crimes.”
Strish and Vanyo said their police departments participate in the Police Assisted Addiction Recovery Initiative, or PAARI.
Read the article here.