Will Opioid Addiction get Worse with the American Health Care Act?

Have you been wondering how the American Health Care Act (AHCA) may impact the current U.S. crisis of opioid addiction? Newsweek recently wrote an article outlining the sobering truth about how the AHCA may result in patients not receiving care they need. Addiction is a condition that is treatable. So, why wouldn’t patients receive quality treatment?

Newsweek spoke with Dr. Yngvild Olsen from the Coalition to Stop Opioid Overdose about what patients with addiction may face if the AHCA became law. “Dr. Olsen, who also sits on the board of directors at the American Society of Addiction Medicine, says she may soon contend with the prospects of turning patients away”.

The article discusses how, if AHCA were to become law, the bill would negatively affect substance abuse patients by potentially making substance abuse treatment unaffordable. Essentially, as Dr. Olsen explained, the bill would truncate many of the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including medicaid expansion. She goes on to mention that although the opioid crisis is a bipartisan issue, it is also a financial issue. Individual states haven’t had the money to properly handle this opioid crisis. With AHCA’s planned cap on medicaid, this lack of funding would get worse. Under the AHCA, it’s very possible that states would not be able to continue covering funding to adequately treat addiction.

You can read the full article article, written by Jessica Firger,  here.

Megan Phillips, M.A.

Reference:

Firger, J. (2017, May 6). The Plight of Opioid Addiction may get a lot worse with the American Health Care Act. Retrieved from https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/03/27/changing-attitudes-harder-than-changing-law/8zC7BnYq4mC3SC7amioU2M/story.html#comments