Political Quotes

“today I wish to engage in a colloquy with Senator Portman to speak about section 5052 of H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. Section 5052 of H.R. 6 takes a long-overdue step of lifting the ``Institutions for Mental Disease,'' or IMD, exclusion for individuals with a diagnosis of substance use disorder. For more than half a century, this arcane provision has restricted access to care for patients struggling with addiction by prohibiting Medicaid from reimbursing for residential substance abuse treatment in facilities with more than 16 beds. Sixteen beds? That might suffice in some parts of the country, but certainly not in many Illinois communities suffering from the opioid epidemic. I have visited facilities down in Carbondale, IL, where they told me they have hundreds of people waiting for treatment and a 12- week wait for an open bed. We don't restrict cancer or diabetes or heart disease patients to only receiving care in certain-sized facilities, and we should not do the same for substance use disorders. In the face of the Nation's worst ever drug overdose epidemic, this Federal law has prohibited treatment centers from expanding services to accommodate the growing demand for recovery services and blocking an entire class of high-quality providers from providing care. It is unacceptable. For years, I have worked in a bipartisan manner to lift this IMD exclusion.…”