Beshear touts Ky. as example to follow in drug fight, Obamacare
After mentioning the 2012 legislation aimed at abuse of prescription painkillers, Beshear said, “This addiction situation is akin to the game of whack-a-mole. . . . You attack one and another pops up someplace else. . . . Now heroin has raised its ugly head and is killing even more people than prescription drug abuse is.”
Beshear cited the anti-heroin legislation passed this year, with expanded drug treatment and locally authorized needle exchanges, he said, “I think we’ve all figured out that we cannot incarcerate ourselves out of this problem.”
Beshear told the governors, meeting in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., that he expects to “hear positive news” this month about efforts against prescription drug abuse in Kentucky.
The Obama administration has asked Congress for an extra $100 million to fight drug addiction. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell told the governors that about a third of the funds would go toward “addiction-fighting medications, which have been the
cornerstone of the government’s approach to fighting opioid use,” Sarah Ferris reports for The Hill. The money would “go to community health centers in 11 states that are on the frontlines of the fight against opioid addictions.”
having expanded Medicaid has been a boon to our providers.
in health care” and will infuse $40 billion into the state’s economy through 2021. The job figure appears to be total jobs, not in health care, which accounts for 40 to 45 percent of the total jobs generated, under the model used by Deloitte.
know a lot of legislatures have a problem just because of the name of the act,
but if you can get past that kind of politics … It’s gonna cut down on the
big costs down the road,” through cancer screenings and so on.
couple of days? I could use that.”