The report was received with cautious optimism by drug-policy advocates and experts.
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Trump's opioid commission's recommendations fly in the face of Republicans' healthcare overhaul plans
Experts are praising the plan, but Republicans could be a roadblock to some of the biggest solutions to the opioid crisis.
President Donald Trump (2nd L), flanked by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (L), Attorney General Jeff Sessions (2nd R) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (R), holds an opioid and drug abuse listening session at the White House in Washington, U.S. March 29, 2017.
Bradley Stein, a senior natural scientist at the Rand Corporation who studies substance-use disorders, called the commission's primarily public health-based solutions a "broad, multi-faceted" approach to the crisis.
Here are a few of the main recommendations (see the rest here):
- Declare a national emergency under the under the Public Health Service Act or the Stafford Act (which
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“The commission’s report highlights how out of step this administration has been [with policy experts] in responding to the opioid crisis and implementing a drug strategy," said advocates drug-law reform. "There hasn’t really been a strategy.”
"It opens up the existing infrastructure and gives patients access to a far broader range of treatment" by allowing Medicaid to pay for treatment in more settings, Stein said.
Expanding Medicaid is a striking contrast to the administration's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the law better known as Obamacare.
"It’s ironic," Smith said. "It underscores how much the administration has been going in the wrong direction on healthcare ... and mitigating the crisis."
Similarly, the commission calls for ramping up enforcement of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, which established that health insurers must provide mental-health or substance-use-disorder coverage equivalent to coverage for physical ailments. The law has been on the books since 2008 but still suffers from noncompliance.
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That recommendation, too, flies in the face of GOP efforts on healthcare reform. Both Senate and House plans contained provisions to waive
An analysis conducted by Eibner and Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher at Rand, found that in places that waive substance-treatment benefits, the out-of-pocket cost for consumers who use those benefits could rise by $1,333 a year. For "high-need" consumers, like those who need an in-patient stay at a treatment facility, out-of-pocket costscould rise to $12,261 a year, the report said.
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