Though President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, declared the opioid crisis a national emergency, they have hindered efforts to curb opioid misuse , according to an op-ed penned in The Hill by Richard Frank, PhD, a professor at Boston-based Harvard Medical School and Keith Humphreys, PhD, a professor at Palo Alto, Calif.-based Stanford University School of Medicine.
The authors argue federal budget proposals and ACA repeal efforts by the administration hurt people's ability to fight the opioid epidemic. Medicaid is one of the greatest sources of funding for opoid treatment and overdose reversal drugs, and an ACA repeal would cut funding and cripple the program. The authors also brought attention to Mr. Trump's budget proposal to cut $84.5 million from HHS' opioid initiative next year.
Dr. Frank and Dr. Humphreys also note Dr. Price's "disturbing" attitude toward Medication Assisted Treatment. While research has found MAT to be very helpful in addressing opioid addiction, Dr. Price is skeptical of its benefits, the authors write.
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