Legislators recently introduced the “Comprehensive Addiction Resources Emergency (CARE) Act,” aimed at combating the substance use epidemic.
The $125 billion bill would direct the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) to establish treatment standards, programs and grants to address substance use disorders (SUDs), including opioids and stimulants, over the next decade.
“The CARE Act gives states and local communities the resources they need to expand substance use prevention, treatment, research, and education to address this crisis head on and help Wisconsinites in need,” U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) said in a statement.
The bill would fund public or private nonprofit SUD providers, as well as states, territories, tribal nations and localities. Private for-profit providers may also be eligible for funding if they are the only SUD treatment provider in the area.
The CARE Act was previously introduced in 2021 and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
The bill would, among other initiatives, allocate $1 billion per year to establish a program for purchasing and distributing opioid overdose reversal drugs for states and Indian tribes.
The federal government has previously expressed strong support for making opioid overdose reversal drugs, like Narcan, readily available for low-income people.
The legislation would also establish grants to improve access to preventative, medical, and recovery care services, foster innovative treatment delivery models and harm reduction services, and expand Medicaid providers’ capacity to treat substance use disorder.
HHS would also issue model standards of care for treatment services and recovery homes and potentially award grants to train health professionals, including clinicians, counselors, case managers and peer recovery coaches to diagnose, treat and prevent SUDs.
Under the CARE Act, dispensers, distributors and manufacturers of Schedule II controlled substances like oxycodone would be required to certify that they maintain effective controls to prevent drug diversion. Opioid treatment programs would be exempt from this certification process, and any penalties collected would fund programs established by the CARE Act.
The CARE Act is directly modeled after the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act. The Ryan White Act, first enacted in 1990, is the largest federal program focused on HIV. It provides treatment services for low-income people with HIV.
Similarly to the Ryan White Act, the CARE Act would provide emergency funds to localities that are disproportionately impacted by a public health crisis.
“We learned from the fight to end the HIV/AIDS crisis that supporting local decision-making and expanding access to treatment and recovery services is powerfully important, and the CARE Act draws from these lessons to deliver billions in transformational federal resources that communities can use to tackle this public health crisis head-on,” U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) said in a statement.
The legislation is also a step closer to behavioral health parity, according to U.S. Rep. David Trone (D-Maryland).
“The opioid epidemic has taken hold of communities in every corner of the country. Even still, the treatment between substance use disorder and other diseases such as cancer couldn’t be more different,” Trone said in a statement. “The CARE Act meets the moment by providing crucial funding to not only treat addiction but also prevent the disease in the first place. We must achieve parity in how we treat addiction in America. This bill is a step in the right direction.”
