Paul Tonko: “I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Medicaid Reentry…”

“I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Medicaid Reentry Act, and I urge all Members to support its swift passage in the House. This bill is about saving lives, pure and simple. 64,000 Americans died of a drug overdose in 2016, more than were lost at the peak of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Based on data from the States, we can estimate that as many as 10,000 of those deaths annually are individuals who have had some interaction with the criminal justice system in the previous year. This is a national emergency that demands immediate action. Individuals who are returning to society after a stay in a corrections facility are particularly vulnerable to overdose deaths. Research has found that formerly incarcerated individuals reentering society are 129 times more likely to die of an overdose during their first 2 weeks back into the community than the general population. The risk of overdose is elevated during this period due to reduced physiological tolerance for opioids among the incarcerated population, a lack of effective addiction treatment options while incarcerated, and perhaps poor care transitions back into their given community. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, roughly 60 percent of our incarcerated population has a substance use disorder, yet only around one-quarter of those are receiving any type of treatment.…”