REPUBLICANS ARE BLAMING OBAMACARE FOR THE OPIOID CRISIS

BY NICOLE GOODKIND at Newsweek

http://www.newsweek.com/obamacare-opioids-republicans-senate-783803

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Republicans are asserting that the Medicaid expansion is responsible for the American opioid epidemic—a line of argument against President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act that experts say is dead wrong.

The Republican argument—repeated at a Wednesday's hearing of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee—centers on the fact that the Medicaid expansion gave unemployed Americans better access to medical treatment and prescription medications, which, some claim, got them hooked.

By this argument, Obamacare directly or indirectly contributed to the 63,632 overdose deaths caused by opioids in 2016. It's unclear what percentage of those deaths Republicans claim were caused to the Medicaid expansion.

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“Lawmakers never intended this, but I’m guessing there will be many who will not want to acknowledge it,” said Republican Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the committee. “Why? Because Obamacare included a large-scale expansion of Medicaid. During the 2017 debate on repealing and replacing Obamacare, proponents of expansion cited its role in funding treatment for addiction.”


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