Maggie Hassan used her first Senate floor speech to talk about how ‘Trumpcare’ would affect the opioid crisis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKx3edQx6hw

Sen. Maggie Hassan devoted the first floor speech of her Senate career Wednesday to speaking about efforts to address the local opioid crisis — and how she says the recently introduced Republican health care bill would harm those efforts.

“In 2016 alone, roughly 500 people in New Hampshire lost their lives as a result of this epidemic,” Hassan said.

However, the Democrat warned that the bill to replace the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, would hurt efforts to address the crisis.

The current version of House Republicans’ bill, which is supported by President Donald Trump, proposes to end Obamacare’s state-based Medicaid expansion beginning in 2020 and cap federal payments to programs. The bill would also reportedly end the Obamacare requirement for addiction and mental health coverage in the 31 states that expanded Medicaid.

“As a former governor, I know full well the impact that decisions in Washington can have on our communities,” said Hassan, who defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte in last November’s election.

According to the senator’s office, 50,000 New Hampshire residents have gained health care coverage through Medicaid expansion. Hassan said Wednesday that “thousands” of Granite Staters had received addiction treatment through the expansion of the means-tested program.

“Repealing Medicaid expansion and capping traditional Medicaid would severely hurt the ability of those on the front lines to save lives and combat this deadly epidemic,” she said. “Substance use disorder treatment providers have been clear that if Medicaid expansion is repealed, they will have to significantly cut back on the help that they can provide to those in need.”

The New Hampshire senator isn’t the only one with concerns about “Trumpcare.”

Four Republican senators from states acutely affected by the epidemic recently wrote a letter warning that one-third of those covered under Medicaid expansion have a “a mental health or substance use disorder” and that the current GOP bill would disrupt such coverage.

“We believe Medicaid needs to be reformed, but reform should not come at the cost of disruption in access to health care for our country’s most vulnerable and sickest individuals,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, in an speech earlier Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren echoed her New England colleague — but in more strident terms.

“One of the cruelest things is what this bill will do to individuals, to families and to communities struggling with the opioid crisis,” said the Bay State Democrat. According to Warren, nearly 2,000 people in Massachusetts died in 2016 due to opioid misuse — double the number in 2013.

“Don’t get me wrong — what we’re doing now isn’t enough,” she said, referring to reports that only 10 percent of those suffering from addiction receive treatment.

“But that means we need more, not less, help,” she said. “Repealing the protections for mental health and substance use disorders in the ACA would yank more than $5 billion — that’s $5 billion — in actual funding that’s currently going to mental health and treatment services. That’s the Republican plan to deal with the opioid crisis.”

During the presidential campaign, Trump vowed to end the drug epidemic by building a Mexican border wall, as well as increasing access to treatment for those in need.