Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has joined other state attorneys general in asking Congress to allow Medicaid funding for residential addiction treatment.
The Road to Recovery Act eliminates the Institutions for Mental Diseases exclusion from Medicaid. The exclusion was part of the original Medicaid legislation and is used to keep federal funding from supporting inhumane asylums.
"The problem that exclusion has caused is it doesn't allow Medicaid funding to go to residential treatment facilities, and that is — based on current science and current research — a very effective way to deal with addiction," Hunter said.
The goal is increasing access to treatment for people addicted to prescription painkillers.
"We have to deal with the demand side of the addiction equation. We need to treat addiction as an illness, not a sin, and get these people well," Hunter said.
In all, 39 state attorneys general have signed a letter asking Congress to pass the Road to Recovery Act. Hunter said they need to present a united front against the opioid epidemic.
"Because it does now know state boundaries. The epidemic doesn't discriminate between socioeconomic levels," Hunter said.
A 2010 survey found Oklahoma leads the nation in prescription painkiller abuse. Nearly 3,000 Oklahomans have died from prescription opioid overdoses in the past three years.
