U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., said he is introducing legislation to lower costs for people seeding opioid treatment, including for medication and outpatient services.
A press release on Friday said the Maximizing Opioid Recovery Emergency (MORE) Savings Act would eliminate costs for opioid treatment and recovery support services for people with private insurance plans and for people enrolled under a new Medicare pilot program.
It also said U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean of Montgomery County will introduce companion legislation in the House.
“The opioid epidemic is devastating communities and tearing families apart in Pennsylvania and across the Nation,” Mr. Casey’s press release said. “As people try to break free from its grasp, the cost of treatment should never be a barrier to recovery. By eliminating the cost of treatment and medication, the MORE Savings Act would begin to get more Americans with opioid use disorder on the road to recovery.”
The MORE Savings Act would require insurers who are offering individual or group health insurance to cover the prescription drugs and support services used to treat opioid use disorder and to reverse overdoses, the release said. It would also require those insurers to cover recovery support services in conjunction with treatment at no cost.
The bill is cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.
First Published: March 18, 2023, 2:15 p.m.