Here’s How the Senate Health Bill Will Make the Opioid Crisis Even More Devastating (Mother Jones)

On Thursday morning, Senate Republicans released their highly anticipated plan to repeal and replace Obamacare, titled the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017. The legislation quickly drew criticism from drug policy experts and politicians who worry that the bill cuts substance abuse and mental health services amidst a spiraling opioid epidemic. Drug overdoses killed 52,404 Americans in 2015 and  roughly 60,000 Americans last year—more than car accidents or gun violence. 

“I hope our Senators ask themselves—what will happen to the Americans grappling with opioid addiction who suddenly lose their coverage?” former President Barack Obama wrote in a Facebook post about the Senate bill.

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The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

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Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

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