Democratic U.S. Senators from New Hampshire and other states hit hardest by the opioid crisis spoke out Tuesday about what they see as failures by President Donald Trump to address the epidemic.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen started off the press conference in D.C. quoting President Trump on a promise she says he’s not living up to.
“Last October President Trump stood on a stage in Portsmouth when he was campaigning for president and he declared that if he was elected president his administration and now I’m quoting ‘would help all of those people so seriously addicted, we will get them assistance, we will make sure they have the top treatment and get better.'”
Shaheen said the Trump Administration’s healthcare reform bill recently passed by the House does just the opposite. Under the plan, states would lose roughly $880 billion of Medicaid funding – money those seeking substance abuse treatment rely on. As well the plan would remove guaranteed coverage for substance abuse care, which is currently mandated under the Affordable Care Act.
U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan along with Senators from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Wisconsin and West Virginia were also in attendance.