DRUGS/HHS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump on Thursday [10-26-17] will declare opioid addiction a ‘public health emergency,’ seeking to elevate the crisis within his administration without an immediate provision of additional funds.
The description stops short of the ‘national emergency’ designation that Mr. Trump had said over the summer he would apply to the epidemic of abuse and overdose of the powerful drugs…
The officials said the declaration, likely to be made formally by the acting head of the Department of Health and Human Services, would encourage Mr. Trump’s cabinet to ‘reorient’ themselves to prioritize the issue and take steps of their own in the coming weeks. And it would accelerate plans to allow health-care providers to treat addicted patients remotely.
But the declaration, which must be renewed every 90 days, carries with it no specific commitments for additional funding. A senior administration official said that such funding had been proposed in previous GOP-led bids to repeal and replace Democrats’ 2010 Affordable Care Act; the official said the White House hoped to see funding in a year-end spending deal instead.”
-Louise Radnofsky, “Trump to Announce Opioid Crisis a Public Health Emergency,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 26, 2017 10:15am