Supporting Passage of H.R. 6 and Urging Further Action to Prevent Addiction

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SEWELL of Alabama. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to thank all of the Members who have worked across the aisle on the opioid bills we've passed over the past two weeks. The bipartisan work that has gone into these bills is exactly what our constituents sent us to Congress to do. I have enjoyed working with Rep. Peter Roskam on H.R. 5773, the Preventing Addiction for Susceptible Seniors Act, which passed on Tuesday as a suspension. Since our committee has jurisdiction over the Medicare program, we found it necessary to work on legislation that helps the seniors impacted by the opioid crisis across this country.

The bill included another bill I worked on with Rep. Renacci, H.R. 5715, the Strengthening Partnerships to Prevent Opioid Abuse Act. The bill encourages greater data sharing between CMS and insurers.

All the bills passed in recent weeks represent the first step in addressing a crisis that has impacted millions of Americans and their families. In 2016, we lost 64,000 American lives from drug overdoses. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50.

After today, we must continue to focus on policies that lift our constituents out of the conditions that lead to addiction. Whether that results from social isolation, financial anxiety, emotional or physical trauma, inadequate access to primary or mental health care, we should consider how all of the policies we advance in this body will impact our constituents.

The lessons from past drug crises and the evidence supporting the public health approach we are taking today can guide us as we seek an end to the current opioid crisis--without revamping the failed and costly War on Drugs.

Opioid addiction is a disease that has spread to millions of Americans across the country, from our young students to our parents and grandparents, from our rural communities to our big cities. Alabama, which has the highest rate of opioid prescriptions in the country, is a battleground in our fight against this epidemic.

Millions of Americans become addicted to opioids after being prescribed opioids after surgery or to manage pain. My congressional district and state is home to many retired coal miners and men and women who have spent their lives working in physically intensive jobs in manufacturing. I have no doubt that the chronic pain they have sustained from years in physically taxing work environments is real and requires pain medication.

I also have heard from constituents with sickle cell disease and cancer, who require pain management to treat the pain that results from their conditions.

Moving forward, I am committed to working on policies that advance and encourage the development and adoption of non-opioid alternatives for pain management. From increased access to physical therapy and chiropractic care to post-surgical non-opioid alternatives, I urge CMS to take the steps they can today to change reimbursement policies that discourage providers to prescribe non-opioid alternatives.

The preventative action necessary for a crisis as such can be observed in the case of Jessica Kilpatrick, an Alabama woman in a small town in Northwest Alabama. As stated in the Washington Post, ``for as long as she could remember, pills made the intolerable possible. Now, without them, she was a poor woman in a poor town with a swollen right foot from a 10-hour shift [at Burger King] and a new key tag from Narcotics Anonymous that said ``Clean and Serene for Eighteen months.''

Susceptibility to relapse on this road to recovery is fueled by the lack of access to adequate treatment for both pain and addiction. I am deeply concerned about Alabamians who work hard every day but yet fall into the Medicaid gap. Workers who make more than 18 percent of the poverty line but less than the federal poverty line do not qualify for any assistance, making prevention and treatment more expensive in non- expansion states and unaffordable for Alabamians in minimum wage jobs.

I urge all Members of Congress to support H.R. 6 today because it marks a positive step in the right direction as we work to improve the lives of the millions of Americans impacted by the opioid and addiction crisis.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source