Heidi Alexander: “I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my opening statement at the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions…”

“I ask unanimous consent that a copy of my opening statement at the Senate Health Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee be printed in the Record. There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: Managing Pain During the Opioid Crisis Mr. ALEXANDER. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will please come to order. Senator Murray and I will each have an opening statement, and then we will introduce the witnesses. After the witnesses' testimony, senators will each have 5 minutes of questions. Dan, a constituent of mine who lives in Maryville, Tennessee, recently wrote me about his wife, who has a rare disease that causes her chronic pain. Dan is concerned because it has become more difficult for her to access painkillers. Dan wrote, ``She is not an abuser, and is doing everything right. Now it's harder for her to get the medicine she needs.'' Dan's wife is one out of 100 million Americans who, according to a 2011 report by what was then the Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine, are living with some pain--that is about 30 percent of Americans. 25 million of those have moderate or severe pain. A new report released in 2018, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says that about 50 million Americans have chronic pain, and nearly 20 million of those Americans have high-impact chronic pain.…”