Today, under questioning by U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL14), health officials from a variety of states explained how states are able to save lives and tackle the opioid with Medicaid expansion funds at a U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee subcommittee hearing, “A Public Health Emergency: State Efforts to Curb the Opioid Crisis.” 

Watch Rep. Castor’s questioning here.

“We heard today about the real benefits of Medicaid expansion in tackling the opioid epidemic from states across the nation. Medicaid expansion allowed the State of Pennsylvania to treat an additional 125,000 Pennsylvanians, while the failure to expand in North Carolina has cost lives, left the state unable to coordinate care across the state or increase access to treatment. States that did expand substance use services under Medicaid highlighted vital resources for treatment centers, and predictability of care and vital infrastructure, including residential treatment. Expansion in Florida would allow our state to vastly improve treatment for our neighbors suffering from opioid addiction and ultimately save lives. Governor DeSantis and Florida lawmakers should do right by our Florida neighbors and expand Medicaid now.”

On Monday, Castor led a letter signed by the entire Democratic Florida delegation to Governor DeSantis and lawmakers calling on them to expand Medicaid to benefit the health of Floridians and the state’s bottom line. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently released a study finding that Medicaid expansion accounted for a reduction in total opioid overdose deaths due to increased resources available to state and local entities and could prevent thousands more deaths if more states expanded Medicaid. Over the past couple of years over 5,000 Floridians have died each year as a result of opioid related causes.