WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin was part of a roundtable to discuss opiate addiction treatment programs at North Central Health Care in Wausau on Wednesday.
Baldwin spent time with clients of North Central’s treatment program and said that one piece of the battle to expand coverage is over.
Baldwin said, “While the Congress of the United States has recently passed the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, it isn’t adequately funded, and so it’s not going to provide all the answers unless we do more.”
The CARA bill passed almost unanimously through Congress in the spring, but additional funding efforts were unsuccessful. Baldwin aims to open up more funds for programs like the one at North Central Health Care and for staff training to help more patients at a time.
Senator Baldwin called on health care providers to become more accountable for pain prescriptions that can start patients down the road to addiction.
She said, “A number of the crises that we’re seeing in the community actually start with a prescription in the doctor’s office, and the medical community needs to be a partner in revising its prescribing standards and guidelines.”
Baldwin spoke in private with several clients of the treatment program at North Central and said their stories put the issue of funding their treatment in perspective.
“If there’s not these recovery and treatment options available in communities. those relationships are never repaired, those lives can’t be saved, and that would be the ultimate tragedy. That’s why we have to continue to fight for the resources we need for treatment.”
North Central Health Care administrators told Baldwin that the opiate epidemic is growing faster than their treatment program can handle. Waiting lists at North Central can be as long as 125 people at any given time.