Senator Warren: Cruel GOP Health Care Bill Will Hurt Efforts to Address Opioid Crisis
Remarks by Senator
As Prepared for Delivery
Last week,
On Tuesday, the
Who comes up with a plan like this?
What kind of health care bill has as its central feature ripping insurance away from tens of millions of American citizens?
What kind of politician thinks they were sent to
Who thinks the central problem in America is that middle class families have too much health care coverage and that the richest people in America need the government to hand them more money?
There's no other way to say it: this bill is just part of a Republican plan to help the rich get richer and kick dirt in everyone else's face.
This bill is an economic disaster, and, at its center, it is cruel. Cancer survivors losing coverage. Seniors facing premium increases of
One of the cruelest things is what this bill will do to individuals, to families and to communities struggling with the opioid crisis.
Last year in
Last week, I was on the front lines at
This week I went to
While was there, I saw mamas and babies, people who are in recovery and people who reach out to those who are still in the grip of drugs. The opioid crisis isn't happening to someone else's family or in someone else's community. This is happening to our families and in our communities. And we need to do more-more to stop this plague before it takes another of our loved ones.
We need to do more. What we absolutely cannot do is less. We cannot take away the resources we already commit to fighting the opioid crisis so that some millionaire can get a tax break.
Current law-the ACA-requires all insurance plans to cover substance use disorder treatment and prevention as an "essential health benefit." That means your insurance company can't turn off your access to treatment just when you need it the most by saying, "Oh sorry - we don't cover that."
Current law-the ACA-gave people the chance to get insurance. Through health exchanges and subsidies, millions more people got private insurance. And through
So there it is-our first line defense in the war on opioid addiction: The ACA currently means that more people are covered and that coverage includes substance abuse treatment.
And what do the
Don't get me wrong. What we're doing now isn't enough. Even now, only 10 percent of those who need treatment for substance use disorder receive it - 90 percent can't get help already! But that means we need more-not less-help.
Repealing the protections for mental health and substance use disorders in the ACA would yank more than
Ask any family trying to get treatment for a loved one who is addicted to drugs: We already have an opioid treatment gap. Gutting the ACA is like shoving a stick of dynamite in the treatment gap and lighting the fuse.
And if the
Now is the time to stop this cruel bill in its tracks, before it hurts real people. Now is the time to speak out about the importance of the ACA and
If you or someone you know has been touched by the opioid epidemic, you know how much this matters. Maybe you have a sister, or a child, or a church member, or a high school friend who has struggled with substance use disorder. Maybe you know someone who has fought on the front lines of this crisis as a health care provider, a community advocate, or a first responder. If you do, then you know the stakes of this debate over the ACA and
Now is the time to act. Don't wait. If the
It's time to stand up and tell the
Read this original document at: https://www.warren.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=1499
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