United States

Mental Health Groups Worry New GOP Plan Will Devastate Coverage

Some also worry about the impact on efforts to combat the opioid crisis

Mental health groups say the new GOP health care bill would terminate mental health care and efforts to combat the opioid crisis, NBC News reported.

The Congressional Budget Office released a report on the bill on Monday, stating that billions of dollars would be saved in federal health spending, by way of cutting $880 billion from Medicaid. In addition to health groups, parents of children with special needs are also rallying against the proposed plan.

“Medicaid is the single largest payer of mental health and addiction treatment services in the country, paying 25 percent of all mental health and 20 percent of all addiction care,” the National Council for Behavioral Health said in a statement.

Without Medicaid’s subsidies, said Linda Rosenberg, president and CEO of the council, people could wind up “homeless, in jail or dead.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price said that the bill does not intend to leave states out in the cold in combating the opioid epidemic.

Contact Us