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Pa. AG warns GOP health plan would harm addiction treatment

Herald-Standard - 6/29/2017

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has joined the growing chorus of opponents to the U.S. Senate Republican health-care plan, warning that it will have an enormously negative impact on the fight against opioid addiction.

In letters to U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who was part of the 13-member panel that crafted the proposal, and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., who has been a vocal critic of the plan, Shapiro said the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) would "reverse progress for millions of people who are dealing with the challenge of opioid addiction, including 175,000 Pennsylvanians."

A planned vote on the BCRA this week was postponed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell because he did not have enough Republican votes to get it passed.

A vote could happen after senators return from their July 4 recess.

The attorney general said his office has targeted drug dealers and traffickers and has "taken an aggressive approach" to stop the diversion of legally prescribed drugs into the black market.

"No level of law enforcement can solve this problem completely," Shapiro wrote. "Expanding access to treatment is critical. The health-care bill under consideration by the United States Senate will prevent us from effectively combating the heroin crisis because it eliminates guaranteed access to treatment for millions of Americans."

Shapiro told the senators that the heroin and opioid epidemic "is the most serious public health and public safety threat" facing Pennsylvania, backing that assertion up with some grim figures.

In 2016, 4,642 Pennsylvanians died from overdoses, a 37 percent increase from 2015, Shapiro said, and that risk has increased with the introduction of fentanyl.

"This is a statewide problem affecting every type of community in our Commonwealth that requires a multi-pronged, multi-disciplinary response," he wrote.

Shapiro said 1.1 million state residents gained health care and 175,000 got access to substance abuse treatment under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. "The Senate bill would roll back much of this expansion and end these patients' guarantee of coverage for treatment through exchange plans or Medicaid," he said, echoing concerns made by Casey, Gov. Tom Wolf and health industry officials.

Citing an unnamed study, Shapiro said the cost of opioid treatment in Pennsylvania is expected to increase to $1.6 billion by 2026, which is, he added, one of the reasons half of the U.S. House members from Pennsylvania voted against the House Republican health-care plan, the American Health Care Act.

"I appreciate the difficult role you have in balancing the reality of this crisis with other policy priorities and constraints of the federal budget and our complex healthcare system," Shapiro wrote.

Shapiro ended the letters with a plea to Casey and Toomey "to keep the issue of access to essential drug treatment top of mind and do everything in your power to ensure Pennsylvanians can get the help they need to overcome addiction."