The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed budget for 2025 includes substantial funding to support access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and prevention.
The proposed budget aims to build upon these efforts by allocating $21.8 billion to combat the surge in overdose deaths nationwide.
The budget allocates substantial resources specifically to combat the opioid overdose crisis, building upon the administration’s previous initiatives, such as encouraging housing providers to stock opioid overdose reversal drugs like Narcan.
“This budget builds on the largest investment in behavioral health in a generation,” Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Congress.
A fact sheet released by the White House about the budget touted Biden’s elimination of the X-Waiver, which required prescribers to obtain a special certificate to prescribe medication-assisted treatment (MAT) drugs. This move increased the number of providers who can initiate opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment from 129,000 to almost two million. The new budget includes plans to increase access to OUD care even further, with $21.8 billion allocated to SUD treatment and recovery.
If passed, payers may also be required to provide a more accurate representation of their provider directories.
The budget proposes a requirement for insurers’ provider networks to have an adequate network of behavioral health providers. It also strengthens the Department of Labor’s (DOL) ability to enforce mental health and SUD requirements among large group market health plans.
The proposal would increase funding for the State Opioid Response grant program, which was designed to provide states with resources to improve access to medications for the treatment of OUD (MOUD), prevention, harm reduction and treatment services for SUDs.
Veterans, who have been heavily impacted by the opioid overdose crisis, receive special attention in the proposed budget. $713 million would be designated to prevent and treat OUD in veterans as well as to fund a new technical assistance center that would strengthen providers’ conception of women’s mental health and substance use.
Peers run existing technical assistance centers and provide training and technical assistance to integrate peers into behavioral health settings.
In addition to increasing access to SUD treatment, the budget would fund efforts to prevent the onset of OUDs.
Almost $170 million would be dedicated to counter the production and trafficking of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs. Synthetic opioids can be 10 times as potent as fentanyl and are becoming increasingly common across the U.S. illicit drug trade.
The budget reiterates the administration’s request from late 2023 to invest in long-term anti-fentanyl measures, such as hiring additional CBP Officers to prevent drugs like fentanyl from entering the U.S. and investigating criminal organizations and drug traffickers.
“This budget lays out a vision for a nation that invests in all aspects of health, fosters innovation, and supports its most vulnerable,” Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement. “This budget continues our shift from a nation focused on illness to one that promotes wellness.”
Centers for Disease Control of Prevention requested $9.7 billion in discretionary funds from the planned Biden-Harris budget.
The CDC budget request would, among other goals, fund programs that support children’s mental health, monitor opioid crisis trends and advance research on opioid-related overdoses and suicide prevention.
“CDC’s [fiscal year] 2025 President’s Budget request outlines investments that will strengthen our nation’s ability to prevent and respond to any health threat, from infectious diseases to overdoses,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, CDC Director, said in a statement.