DRUGS/HEALTHCARE/OBAMACARE(ACA): “The nation’s worsening opioid crisis has become another sticking point in Republican plans to dismantle major portions of the Affordable Care Act, with key GOP senators hesitating to support a bill that could threaten addiction treatment for millions of people.
Several provisions of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, allowed millions of Americans seeking substance-abuse treatment to gain coverage, including through an expansion of the Medicaid health program for the poor. But the House bill repealing the ACA, passed in early May, would roll back that Medicaid expansion beginning in 2020 and allow insurance companies to charge some people with drug addictions higher premiums or deny them substance-abuse coverage.
Concerns about those provisions cut into Republican support for the replacement measure in the House. Of the 20 Republicans who voted against the House bill, 16 represent states that saw significant increases in drug-overdose death rates in recent years.”
-Sharon Nunn, “Opioid Crisis Complicates GOP’s Health-Law Push,” The Wall Street Journal online, June 11, 2017 02:59pm