As Washington Republicans like Kenny Marchant step up their efforts to repeal essential health care protections, Texans with preexisting conditions won’t be the only ones hurt. The DCCC is reminding voters that Kenny Marchant’s repeal efforts would also devastate efforts to stem the deadly tide of opioid addiction in Texas.
If the lawsuit backed by Kenny Marchant succeeds, insurance companies would no longer be required to cover treatment for substance abuse disorders, many patients would lose the insurance they depend on to access treatment, and providers would lose the resources they depend on to provide care to those grappling with addiction.
“Yet again, we see Kenny Marchant putting Washington Republican special interests ahead of the health and welfare of his constituents, this time when it comes to combating the opioid epidemic that is devastating families across Texas,” said DCCC Spokesperson Brooke Goren. “By voting to support a lawsuit that aims to make it harder for people grappling with substance abuse disorder to get the treatment they need, Kenny Marchant is playing politics with his constituents’ lives on the line.”
As the New York Times reported yesterday:
The health law took effect just as the opioid epidemic was spreading to all corners of the country, and health officials in many states say that one of its biggest benefits has been providing access to addiction treatment. It requires insurance companies to cover substance abuse treatment, and they could stop if the law were struck down.
The biggest group able to access addiction treatment under the law is adults who have gained Medicaid coverage. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimated that 40 percent of people from 18 to 65 with opioid addiction — roughly 800,000 — are on Medicaid, many or most of whom became eligible for it through the health law. Kaiser also found that in 2016, Americans with Medicaid coverage were twice as likely as those with no insurance to receive any treatment for addiction.
States with expanded Medicaid are spending much more on medications that treat opioid addiction than they used to. From 2013 through 2017, Medicaid spending on prescriptions for two medications that treat opioid addiction more than doubled: It reached $874 million, up from nearly $358 million in 2013, according to the Urban Institute.
The growing insured population in many states has also drawn more treatment providers, including methadone clinics, inpatient programs and primary care doctors who prescribe two other anti-craving medications, buprenorphine and naltrexone. These significant expansions of addiction care could shrink if the law were struck down, leaving a handful of federal grant programs as the main sources of funds.
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