Pa. experts say $45 billion in GOP health bill for opioid treatment is far too little

(Harrisburg) — The latest version of the Senate GOP health care bill includes about $45 billion for opioid treatment.

But experts are warning more people will die if the bill is approved.

Jennifer Smith, Acting Secretary of the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, acknowledges that $45 billion in treatment money sounds big.

But she says you really have to break it down.

The grant would cover 9 years, and get split between all 50 states.

So Pennsylvania really might only see $100 million a year.

At the same time, billions in Medicaid expansion funding would be getting cut.

And last year, 124,000 people in Pennsylvania’s expanded Medicaid used it to get substance use disorder treatment.

Smith says the new money would have to fill in the gap.

“Doesn’t even come close. Doesn’t even come close. We can piece together some solutions that might help get us a little closer to where we had been, but the end result is more people are going to die,” she says.

Smith says society will pay a cost too; she expects more people will end up in emergency rooms and jails, where taxpayers foot the bill.

Richard Edley, head of the Rehabilitation and Community Providers Association in Pennsylvania, agrees with Smith.

“It’s going to be a real big problem. And that’s why you hate to say $45 billion, we’re opposing that, but it’s packaged with the rollback of benefits to these same individuals,” says Edley.

Republican US Senator Pat Toomey says the federal government has a debt problem and needs to reduce its spending on Medicaid.