Increasing Access to Drug and Mental Health Treatment
Across the nation, far too many people are dying as a result of accidental drug overdoses. In California, 1,243,000 adults have a serious mental illness. Treatment for addiction and serious mental health illnesses is highly effective, but most people are not able to access the care they need.
Instead of doubling down on proven strategies to reduce overdose deaths, federal GOP lawmakers and the Trump administration have passed catastrophic cuts to Medicaid – the single largest payer of addiction treatment in the country.
Untreated substance use and mental health conditions can result in other health conditions, unemployment, homelessness, and unnecessary incarceration. Far too often, we are warehousing people in prisons – at a cost of nearly $133,000 per person per year – instead of providing them the medical care they need upfront.
