EDITORIAL: Bill weakens opioid fight

June 22--One of the worst features of the Obamacare rollback emerging from the Senate majority explains why Republican leaders concocted it in secret.

The bill, fundamentally, severely would diminish the Medicaid program, by more than $800 billion over 10 years. That, in turn, would wave a white flag in the fight to get control of the raging opioid addiction crisis.

Nationwide, there were more than 52,000 overdose deaths in 2016, exceeding by nearly 20,000 the number of people who died in vehicle crashes. In Pennsylvania, the Wolf administration has reported that the number of people who died of overdoses in Pennsylvania last year rose by 16 percent to 4,800.

Diminishing Medicaid is exactly the wrong step at a time when it is needed more than ever to help battle addiction through treatment.

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project reported recently that from 2005 through 2014, opioid-related inpatient hospital stays increased by 64 percent nationwide and by more than 50 percent in Pennsylvania, where about 175,000 people use some form of public health care assistance for addiction treatment.

The hospitalization numbers are certain to rise because of the widespread use of naloxone, the antidote that has saved thousands of people from fatal overdoses over the last two years.

If Congress is serious about attacking the opioid scourge, it is duty-bound to ensure that Medicaid remains funded.

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