[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 184 (Sunday, October 25, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6532-S6533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



    People with opioid addiction getting treatment through Medicaid

  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 get access to addiction treatment under the 
law is adults who have gained Medicaid coverage. The Kaiser Family 
Foundation

[[Page S6533]]

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 $887 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.

                              165 Million