Treating Substance Abuse in Federal Health Programs

Finance Healthcare: Closing Gaps in the Care Continuum: Opportunities to Improve Substance Use Disorder Care in the Federal Health Programs, April 9, 2024

The way to improve care, such that patients cannot slip through the cracks of addiction (and mental health) care is to pay them for ongoing participation in partial hospitalization and other psychiatric rehabilitation programs. 

This should be a part of a program, funded by a subtraction value added tax, to participate in remedial education from ESL to literacy at the tenth grade level, followed by either technical education or completion of secondary education and advancement to the completion of an associate's degree.

During paid education (at a minimum wage that has at least doubled), healthcare must be an included component, with failure to pursue both sobriety and education as needed leading to some form of rehospitalization.

This must apply to drug court participants as well. Simply dumping people into half-way houses or into the Oxford system, with no concern for their educational development and a bias to low wage labor is a guarantee of relapse and recidivism. The prison industrial complex needs to close its revolving door and be replaced with real care.

Veterans healthcare is also incomplete. Again, some form of paid psychiatric rehabilitation with continued medical care and payment for participation is a key to keep people engaged in their recoveries.

Veterans and parolees, as well as other addicts, mentally ill individuals and the chronically poor have opportunity costs that must be met so that they can put recovery ahead of engaging in low wage work (aka wage slavery).

Please see the attached comments from 2021 before this committee and Ways and Means from February, where we propose that mental healthcare and addiction in the criminal justice system be shifted to mandatory hospitalization, the need to hold patients longer and deal with either alcoholic relapse or medication noncompliance are discussed.

Attachment: Mental Healthcare in America Video