ACA's repeal would devastate fight against opioid addiction, researchers find
Sam Kennedy at the Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-aca-repeal-impact-opioid-treatment-20170112-story.html
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Funding for mental illness and opioid addiction treatment in Pennsylvania will take a big hit if the Affordable Care Act is repealed, according to research published this week by Harvard Medical School.
More than 181,000 Pennsylvania residents with mental and substance abuse disorders will lose access to services made available under the ACA, concluded Harvard health economics professor Richard G. Frank and New York University public service dean Sherry Glied.
Nationwide, repeal would cut at least $5.5 billion in federal funding that helps more than 1 million people with serious mental disorders and nearly 3 million with substance use disorders of whom more than 200,000 are opioid-addicted, the researchers found.
The 21st Century Cures Act, which Congress passed last month with the support of overwhelming bipartisan majorities, authorized a $1 billion increase in treatment over two years, Frank and Glied noted in an article in The Hill newspaper in Washington, D.C.
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