Opinion: America’s addiction crisis, compounded by Covid-19, requires immediate action to save lives
Despite hard-fought progress in recent years, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that drug overdose deaths in the U.S. are now at their highest level ever, soaring to more than 81,000 in the 12-month period between June 2019 and June 2020. At the same time, unprecedented challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic have illuminated existing weaknesses in our health care infrastructure when it comes to preventing and treating addiction.
While past presidents and members of Congress have enacted a series of bipartisan bills with important provisions that contributed to a temporary national dip in the overdose death rate, policymakers must now take action to address the remaining structural and financial roadblocks that hinder widespread addiction education and training, access to lifesaving medications, and health insurance coverage for evidence-based addiction care.
