Local

Georgia Opioid Addicts Have No Place To Go, Official Says

October 26th, 2017

State Sen. Renee Unterman, R – Buford, left, said she will make the opioid crisis a priority as part of her legislative agenda when lawmakers meet again in January.

David Goldman / Associated Press

To fight the opioid crisis in Georgia, the state must consider bringing in federal dollars by expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, according to State Sen. Renee Unterman.

She said the growing number of drug addicts in Georgia need help.

“Right now, if you’re a young man and you are 18 to 35 years old and you’ve already run your family off, you have no money, you have no job and you’re addicted, there’s absolutely no place to go for addiction services,” she said.

Those services could be covered under Medicaid. That’s what happened in Pennsylvania, which added 45 treatment clinics last year and expanded Medicaid, said Pennsylvania’s Governor Tom Wolf.

“We’ve used the expansion,” he told NPR Thursday. “One-hundred and twenty-five thousand people are getting treatment, and providers are getting reimbursed by the extended Medicaid.”

In Georgia, Sen. Unterman said she will make the opioid crisis a priority as part of her legislative agenda when lawmakers meet again in January. She said flexibility with Medicaid expansion dollars is what she is hoping for from Congress.