April 2, 2019 Issue, Page 4 of 10

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“ElkCitw NO (XING TAY WALKING Serving Western Oklahoma Since 1901 LOITER! WITTERING + LANREAKING Opiod settlement funds put to good use Muskogee Phoenix, Okla. —Sy A decision to invest the lion's share of a $270 million settle- ment with the maker of OxyContin in a program that stud- com teem ©) 9An a Rew MM ee 1 comics com EMAIL: hpayne@detnews ies and treats addiction as "a brain disease" and is "finding innovative ways to cure it" is smart move by the state in its landmark opioid lawsuit. Proposed ag cuts Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter's announced on Tuesday that Purdue Pharma, one of several defendants named in a lawsuit slated for a May 28 trial in Norman, opted to settle rather than take its chances inside the courtroom. don’t make sense ‘The settlement creates an endowment for Oklahoma State University Center for Wellness and Recovery in Tulsa that will be used to "champion groundbreaking research’ related to the treatment of opioid abuse and addiction and preven- tion. Enid News & Eagle, Okla. earning $500,000 or less. Cutting the safety net out Floods have ruined crops The university in 2018 launched the Addiction Medicine Agriculture is unlike most from under farmers would in the past, while drought has Clinic, which employs Oklahoma's first certified academic ad- -Oklahoma agriculture other businesses. There are not be good policy. Redue- been the major issue in recent representatives were taken large capital outlays - mainly ing crop insurance subsidies years. diction physicians. The clinic offers individualized, evidence- aback recently when Presi- equipment and land -- but would mean farmers would based, substance-use disorder treatment and mental health dent Donald Trump released so much of the end product, pay more for insuring their Add to that the devastat- his budget blueprint for the not to mention a farmer’s crops, thus putting them in ing fires of 2016 and 2017 in services for adults, and settlement proceeds will go along 2020 fiscal year. profit, is dependent on forces amore precarious financial Northwest Oklahoma and way to further those efforts. The record $4.75 trillion outside of anyone’s control, position. Kansas, and you can see now Statistics cited by Hunter when terms of the settlement budget requests included a namely the weather. The problems rural Amer- is not the time to be messing $3.6 billion cut to U.S. Depart- “It’s got us a little bewil- ica face have been brought with crop insurance. were announced provide ample evidence of the need for ment of Agriculture. dered in just what they’re into focus by the historic The president's budget plan the work being done at the center and for treatment. Other ‘The plan would eliminate thinking up there,” Scott flooding facing much of the is just that - a plan. subsidies to higher-income Blubaugh, president of Amer- Midwest. statistics show that treating addiction as a public health issue farmers and reduce what the ican Farmers & Ranchers/ Farmland in Nebraska and Itis expected to be quickly rather than criminal justice issue produces better results in a proposal terms “overly gener- Oklahoma Farmers Union, Iowa is underwater in many rejected by Congress, so any more cost-effective manner. ous” crop insurance premium told Gaylord News. places. Livestock has been spending plan that makes it to subsidies. We wonder, too. killed, stored grain has been final form will be quite a bit A Columbia University study showed about 65 percent of Tt would reduce the aver- Rural economies continue ruined by rising waters and different than what has been the nation's 1.5 million prisoners suffer from addiction, but age premium subsidy for to struggle. Input costs for inundated fields mean delays proposed. treatment is made available only to about 11 percent of the crop insurance from 62 to 48 farmers are high, and com- in planting crops. percent and limit commodity, modity prices are low, mak- Oklahoma farmers know ‘And, we hope cuts to USDA prison population. It costs taxpayers an average of $32,000 a conservation and crop insur- ing the margin for a profit or weather-related problems are not part of the final bud- year to house an inmate in the United States. ance subsidies to producers Joss razor thin. well. get. ‘Treatment, on the other hand, actually reduces substance use disorder rates by 40 percent to 60 percent and improves the employment prospects ofaddicts for whom treatment is, made available by 40 percent. It also has been shown that for every dollar invested in treatment programs, there is a $12 benefit to society. Government reports often wro OSU Center for Health Sciences President Dr. Kayse Shrum said the center's mission "is to save lives and rescue those who are struggling with addiction." If this endowment affords the center an opportunity to expand its reach as anticipated, there is no doubt that the $60 million that will be The Oklahoman, Okla- ers to say that repeal efforts In other words, the CBO ACA mandate repeal isn’t set aside to offset litigation costs up to this point will be worth homa City would, literally, kill people. overstated the impact of the its only failure to predict Yet the flaws in the CBO’s ACA mandate repeal by some the ACA’s impact. When the filing of this lawsuit. ‘You occasionally hear estimates were obvious at 540 percent. That’s not a someone bemoan the fact that the time and have now been minor mistake. Obamacare was proposed This appears to be a well-crafted settlement from which in Congress, the CBO said municipalities and counties across the state also will benefit. the public doesn’t take gov- confirmed. ‘When the debate over ernment reports seriously. While the ACA was not re- Obamacare repeal was its passage would cause the Should the prospect for additional settlements arise in this But a major reason people pealed, Congress did do away underway, and its defenders number of uninsured people case, we hope the attorney general continues to be motivated shrug off otherwise “alarm- with the insurance mandate. pointed to the CBO estimates, to decline by 19 million in ing” reports is that so many The Washington Examiner prudent financial analysts 2014. Instead, the number by outcomes similar to those we saw Tuesday. turn out false. Consider the now reports, “In what was noted the CBO report was federal government’s recent literally a footnote in its based on assumptions that fell only by 9 million. At one admission that the Congres- annual report on national defied common sense. Among point, the CBO estimated 22 sional Budget Office’s past health spending projections, them was the CBO’s predic- million people would receive projections on how insurance actuaries for the Centers tion that repeal of the ACA Have a letter to changes might affect Ameri- for Medicare and Medicaid penalty would cause 5 million insurance through an Obam- acare exchange by 2016, but cans have proven bogus. Services ... estimated that the people to drop out of Med- the editor? Email In 2017 Congress was elimination of the individual icaid. You may recall that the actual figure was proved to be less than half that. debating repeal of the Af- mandate would have a signifi- people on Medicaid pay little it to editor@ fordable Care Act, including cantly smaller impact than repeal of the penalty assessed the CBO has long estimated. or nothing for that welfare program’s coverage. Yet the Put simply, the CBO tends to overstate the benefits of big ecdailynews.com on Americans who didn’t buy Specifically, the CMS report health insurance policies. revealed that 2.5 million CBO estimated that repeal of a penalty Medicaid patients government programs and wildly overstate the impact of The CBO estimated elimina- more people would go with- or stop by 206 W. tion of that mandate would out insurance in 2019 due to ‘weren’t paying would cause them to give up insurance reining in those programs. Why are people so skepti- cause 14 million to 16 million the repeal of the individual coverage they were getting Broadway, Elk City. Americans to go without health insurance. mandate’s penalties, and the impact would be ‘smaller’ free. ‘The CBO’s bad guess cal of government reports? Maybe it’s because they’ve This led the ACA’s defend- thereafter.” regarding the impact of the been paying attention.