Democrat Buttigieg wants to save million lives through plan fighting
mental health, addiction
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[August 23, 2019]
By Tim Reid
(Reuters) - Democratic U.S. presidential
candidate Pete Buttigieg aims to prevent 1 million deaths by 2028 from
addiction and mental illness under a plan he released on Friday aimed at
tackling the country's opioid and substance abuse crisis.
Buttigieg wants to require health insurance companies to provide mental
health and addiction treatment on an equal footing with other physical
conditions, to reduce deaths due to drugs, alcohol and suicide.
Known as "deaths of despair," those kinds of fatalities have led to the
first decline in life expectancy for middle-aged whites in the United
States for generations, according to a recent Princeton University
study, and often occur in communities that have suffered economic
downturns.
“For years, politicians in Washington have claimed to prioritize mental
health care while slashing funding for treatment and ignoring America’s
growing addiction and mental health crisis. That neglect must end,"
Buttigieg said in a statement before the plan's scheduled release.
Buttigieg is one of 22 Democratic candidates vying to become the party's
nominee to take on Republican President Donald Trump in the November
2020 election. Other Democratic White House hopefuls, including U.S.
Senators Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar, have also released plans
aimed at fighting the opioid abuse crisis.
Trump campaigned in 2016 on reducing opioid-related deaths. He appointed
a "drug czar" after taking office to tackle the opioid addiction crisis.
Congress has also passed legislation to combat opioid-related deaths.
Deaths due to opioids began to decline last year.
There were more than 68,000 U.S. deaths from drug overdoses in 2018,
compared with over 72,000 in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. It was the first annual drop in drug
overdose deaths since 1999.
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2020 Democratic U.S. presidential candidate and South Bend Mayor
Pete Buttigieg speaks during the Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Des
Moines, Iowa, Aug. 10, 2019. REUTERS/Scott Morgan/File Photo
Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, wants to see a new
approach in how the U.S. health system treats mental illness and
addiction, by dramatically increasing access to mental health and
substance abuse treatment and ending the stigma of people ashamed or
reluctant to seek help.
If elected president in 2020, Buttigieg says he will commit to
decreasing deaths of despair by 1 million by 2028, and ensure that
75% of people who need mental health and addiction services receive
that care by the end of his first four-year term.
Buttigieg says he will achieve those goals through a number of
initiatives, including a 10-year, $100 billion grant program that
will fund local communities to expand and develop their own
on-the-ground expertise to improve mental health and addiction
treatments.
The plan would also provide funds to expand take-home naloxone
programs to all 50 states by 2024. Naloxone is a drug that can be
administered to a person suffering an opioid overdose and can
rapidly reverse the overdose and prevent death.
(Reporting by Tim Reid in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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