Connecticut advocates say proposed cuts to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s new budget plan could have disastrous effects on low-income people seeking addiction treatment.
Kim Beauregard heads InterCommunity Health Care, a safety net organization in Connecticut.
“People are coming in who are homeless, who are experiencing all kinds of other difficulties or primary care issues, poverty…it just feels like people who are making these decisions do not know what’s going on in the real world here.”
The proposed cuts come at a time when accidental overdose deaths have increased in Connecticut. A record number of 1,200 people died last year.
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., says he can’t pinpoint how much Connecticut stands to lose, but he says fewer resources will create problems in other areas as well.
“If you don’t pay now, you pay later in homelessness, in crime, in all kinds of ways that are vastly more costly. So it’s an investment in health care that prevents larger costs later.”
Congress will review the proposed federal budget during the next couple months. The final version will likely see substantial changes from the president’s wish list.
