How Medicaid Cups can endanger American progress against opioid dependence

While she heads for the hilly streets of Asheville, in North Carolina, Brandi Hayes is moved by the memory of a father whom she barely knew.

In part of the 5-year-old post-sur-Surdose response team in the region (port), it takes place towards emergency calls in a vehicle belonging to the county. With each rescue attempt, she remembers the death of her own father following a heroin overdose at 27 years old.

The work of Ms. Hayes, like port efforts, does not stop at calls for 911. The team of four units follows within 72 hours to provide support, education, advice and a link with care. Since Medicaid pays most opioid treatments here, the government’s low -income insurance program is complex linked to the port mission.

“Medicaid is a large part of what we do,” she says.

Now, while the Republicans move to limit the expenses of Medicaid – in the hope of slowing down the government and compensating for the tax reductions proposed – efforts to process opioids like those here in Asheville are confronted with an uncertain future. This is part of a broader controversy around the law on One Big Beautiful Bill, now approaching final approval at the Congress. Even among the Republicans, the Medicaid cuts cause tensions in the midst of forecasts that millions of Americans could become uninsured.

Mousing admissibility changes to Medicaid arrive at a “tenuous moment” for the opioid crisis, according to KFF, a non -profit organization which provides non -support reports on national health policy. Almost two thirds of people with dependence on opioids looking for treatment are on Medicaid, he says.