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Federal health secretary visits W.Va. Capitol, is greeted by demonstrators

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price visited West Virginia’s Capitol and Gov. Jim Justice on Tuesday afternoon.

Price has been traveling to various states to discuss ways to battle the nation’s opioid addiction crisis. In West Virginia, he was speaking with Justice and others involved with the state’s fight against opioid addiction.

He was joined in a media appearance by dignitaries including presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, Congressman Evan Jenkins, who announced Monday a run for U.S. Senate, and state health and human resources secretary Bill Crouch.

“The opioid crisis knows no bounds,” Price said. “It cuts far and wide, from large cities to small hamlets and knows no boundaries in terms of who it affects.”

He said 52,000 Americans died of overdoses last year — 33,000 of opioid overdose.

“We lose a Vietnam war in this nation every single year to overdose. That’s unacceptable,” Price said. “That’s unacceptable to you, that’s unacceptable to me, that’s unacceptable to the president of the United States.”

So, Price said he and others from the White House have gone on the road to talk to people about what can be done.

“We’re incredibly honored to be here in West Virginia and to learn the stories that you have learned, sometimes in very, very painful ways,” Price said.

The secretary was greeted by a dozen or more demonstrators who expressed concern about a federal healthcare plan that passed the House of Representatives last week.

“He deliberately ignored us. He kept his eyes straight ahead and wouldn’t even look at our signs or us,” said Perry Bryant, the president of the board of directors for West Virginians for Affordable Health Care

Bryant and the other demonstrators contend changes to the Affordable Care Act could harm West Virginians who gained access to insurance under the Obama administration.

“It’s not beneficial to West Virginia. Over a 10 year period it will cut over $4 billion dollars in Medicaid funding. That’s an average of $400 million a year. It would have a devastating effect,” Bryant said.

“It’s very likely to eliminate the Medicaid expansion and 170,000 West Virginians, and it jeopardizes the essential health benefits like requiring insurance companies to provide maternity coverage or provide preventive care or provide pharmaceutical coverage. It also weakens the protections in the Affordable Care Act on pre-existing conditions. It has a number of adverse effects on West Virginia. We’re here to express our concern and opposition.”

Jim Justice

On Friday, Governor Justice reacted to potential changes to the Affordable Care Act, saying he would do his best to maintain the investment in healthcare in the state.

“It’s premature to know the effects of that on our people. Some way, somehow we’ve got to stand firm for the weakest and the sickest and our pre-exisitng conditions and try to stand firm to help our people,” Justice said then.

Reporters asked today about how changes to federal healthcare law might affect West Virginia’s fight against opioid addiction.

Bill Crouch

“It’s a grave concern. We have serious concerns about what’s going to happen with that population,” Crouch, the state DHHR secretary, said.

“If we have an additional 50,000 people with no coverage, no way to get treatment, we think our problem is going to be light years more difficult.”

Price responded, “We understand and appreciate the concerns that West Virginia has and that the nation has to make sure that nobody falls through the cracks in the healthcare system, and right now there are folks falling through the cracks.”

Price said federal healthcare shouldn’t be judged by the amount of money allotted to it but instead by its effectiveness.

“We for so long in this country have judged programs coming out of Washington by how much money we’re putting into the program instead of the outcomes. Is the program actually helping the end user?

“We have a Medicaid program in this country right now, where one out of every three physicians in this nation who ought to be seeing Medicaid patients isn’t seeing Medicaid patients. If we’re honest with ourselves, as a society, it’s imperative we step back and say, ‘Why is that?'”

 





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