Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank the witnesses for being here today, your testimony.

The risk of opioid overdose death is 120 times higher than other individuals, especially in the two to four weeks after release.

States that expanded Medicaid had a six percent overall lower rate of opioid use or opioid overdose deaths.

If we don't want the States to keep going in their own direction we should put it in writing.

For every 100 syringes that are handed out, 120 are returned.

His request was that I cosponsor your bill. And, luckily, I already had.

Are you aware that 55 percent of the counties in our country do not have a single practicing psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker?

It is important that we get this right.

Are you aware of the fact that that is actually worse for kids?

So I point these stories and these statistics out because I think the reality that I think many of us experience in our healthcare system today is that, when we talk about quality, when we talk about access, when we talk about what…

The challenge--where I would challenge you and challenge others on this is that the focus of that system ends up being on those who have access to it and not the drastic number of Americans that don't.