More than two dozen bills intended to fight the opioid addiction epidemic have advanced from a congressional committee.
A day after taking drugmakers to task in a public hearing, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed 26 measures to do things like encourage the development of non-addictive painkillers, expand the availability of overdose-reversal drugs, increase the number of substance abuse treatment providers, heighten public awareness of prescription abuse and mandate electronic prescribing for some patients.
"We know there’s no silver bullet. We know there’s no one-size-fits-all approach that will remedy the catastrophic effects of this crisis over the last decade," said Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden. "But much can be done to help vulnerable patients get the treatments they want and that they need and to ensure those powerful drugs are not getting into the wrong hands."
Democrats like California’s Doris Matsui said Republican plans to cut billions in Medicaid funding, however, will curb the impact of those bills, should they become law.
"Medicaid is the primary payer of mental health treatment in this country, including substance-use disorder treatment. Without it, we would take many steps backward in our efforts to address the opioid epidemic," Matsui said.
New Jersey Congressman Frank Pallone said there’s much more work to be done.
"We need to address the evolving nature of the epidemic, which includes the shift away from prescription medications to extremely deadly opioid analogs, like fentanyl," Pallone said. "This shift exacerbates the need to expand access to life-saving, evidence-based treatment in addition to focusing on prevention."
With one of the nation's highest prescription rates, Oklahoma is among the states hit hardest by the opioid crisis. Three out of five overdose deaths in the state involve the powerful painkillers, and opioid overdoses kill more Oklahomans than car crashes.
The state has taken its own efforts to reduce opioid addiction. Attorney General Mike Hunter convened a task force in 2017 to tackle the issue. It issued a final report in January, and several of its recommendations became legislation that made it to Gov. Mary Fallin.
