Letters: Congress should pass opioid addiction treatment

I’ve worked at Crescent Care in New Orleans, a federally qualified health center, for 15 years and am in awe of the perseverance and vulnerability of my patients with opioid use disorder. I often treat these patients with buprenorphine, the gold standard of care.Buprenorphine is a key component of successful opioid treatment and can cut the risk of overdose in half. This medication works by blocking the effects of opiates in the brain, which means patients can’t get high even if they use opioids.At the same time, they don’t go through the painful experience of withdrawal. It allows my patients to regain stability, find housing and employment and get their lives back.Currently, a federal regulatory barrier, the “X-waiver,” makes it more difficult to access this effective medication. The X-waiver burdens providers who want to prescribe buprenorphine by requiring unnecessary training and limiting the number of patients they can treat.The Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act, a straightforward and commonsense policy, would remove the X-waiver and increase access to the medication.The Senate has an opportunity to pass the MAT Act before the end of the year. The legislation is broadly supported and bipartisan.It has 250 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 14 co-sponsors in the Senate, including our own U.S. Sen. John Kennedy. The MAT Act would increase access to treatment for 2.7 million people with substance use disorder all over the country. It could prevent 30,000 deaths per year in the U.S. and save the lives of our neighbors and loved ones here in Louisiana.I urge the Senate to pass the MAT Act and help us support Louisianans in need.JAKE RICKOLLprimary care providerNew Orleans Want to see your opinion published in The Advocate | Times-Picayune? Submit a letter to the editor.
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