Opioid Crisis

Floor Speech

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Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this week, the House is considering a number of bills relating to the opioid public health epidemic.

I serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and over the past year, our committee has heard from experts. We have had numerous hearings on all facets of the opioid crisis. We have gathered facts, listened to witnesses, including those struggling with addiction; doctors; providers; the Drug Enforcement Agency; and more. Plus, many families and experts back home have informed us and encouraged the Congress to act.

Last year, one loving father in my home district in Tampa, Florida, came to meet with me to share his experience. He said:

Our son has been an addict for the last 5 years. During that time, our family has discovered how impotent the healthcare system, government system, insurance companies, criminal justice system, and our family have been to combat this disease.

Prior to our personal experience, we were like most Americans who believed this was not our problem, but we were saddened by those who experienced the crisis. In addition, we cannot believe how futile and limited our resources and efforts to help our son overcome this illness have been.

We still believe, although to a lesser degree, that the people afflicted with this illness still hold the key to unlocking their own happiness to managing this illness. However, what is abundantly clear now is that the resources necessary to provide even a remote chance for addicts to achieve temporary or permanent remission must be substantially increased. We have invested, personally, over $100,000 trying to help our son.

His remarks echo what we heard from experts all across the board in our committee, like Dr. Andrew Kolodny, director of Opioid Policy Research at Brandeis University, who emphasized that treatment has to be expanded exponentially, and it must be easy to access. ``We have to build a new system in America that does not exist.''

Democrats have urged our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in truly tackling the crisis. What became apparent in committee and what is apparent through these small-ball bills on the floor this week and next week is that Republicans still are not there. They are not willing to adequately address this public health crisis. We need a robust, long-term solution that truly meets the challenge of the opioid crisis.

A consensus has emerged, and it is based upon these devastating facts right now. Over 40,000 people are dying from an opioid overdose every year. In my home State of Florida, we are losing about 5,700 people per year to overdose. That was in 2016. That was a 35 percent increase from the previous year.

The CDC says opioid overdoses have quadrupled since 1999. Only 10 to 15 percent of Americans suffering from opioid addiction are currently receiving treatment.

Those numbers cry out for a meaningful, comprehensive approach. But our Republican colleagues have failed to get there with us.

We have been through this before. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, we were struggling with the HIV/AIDS public health epidemic. For many years, the Congress was criticized for not adequately addressing the crisis. There was a harmful stigma involved, just like there is for opioid addiction.

But by the early 1990s, the Congress came together and adopted the Ryan White CARE Act that provided resources all across the country in a consistent fashion and provided funds to local communities and local nonprofits to help us. The death rate from HIV/AIDS is dramatically less.

This is what we have to do when it comes to opioids: provide that comprehensive, long-term solution that simply isn't being demonstrated in these small-ball, little bills that are nibbling around the edges.

Mr. Speaker, at the same time, it is very difficult to be proactive in a meaningful way on the opioid crisis when Republicans and the White House continue to drag us backward when it comes to affordable healthcare.

Just last week, the Trump administration and the GOP launched a new attack on Americans with preexisting conditions like opioid addiction. They asked a Federal court to strike down the Affordable Care Act preexisting condition protection. That is the bedrock protection contained in the Affordable Care Act that says, if you have a cancer diagnosis, Alzheimer's, or heart disease, an insurance company cannot deny you coverage, and they cannot charge you exorbitant rates. The GOP has never really been for that protection.

How are we going to adequately address the opioid addiction crisis when they want to tear away affordable healthcare, including the protection on preexisting conditions?

We need a robust solution here, a comprehensive solution. Otherwise, this is simply nibbling around the edges.

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