Millions of dollars in West Virginia drug treatment at stake in ACA repeal fight

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Health Care for None –

Mar 30, 2019 – Under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, West Virginia expanded its Medicaid program to those who make up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. According to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, the state’s expanded Medicaid program spentabout $58 million on mental health and substance abuse in fiscal year 2015, $61 million in 2016, $79 million in 2017 and $90 million in 2018.

President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday it supports striking down the entire Affordable Care Act. Trump’s Department of Justice wrote that it agrees with a Texas judge’s December ruling that the law is unconstitutional. The Trump administration had previously argued that only parts of the law — protections for those with pre-existing conditions and limits on premiums for older, sicker people — should be struck down. Trump urged congressional Republicans last week to come up with a law to replace the ACA if it is repealed, although Congress could not do that in 2017-18, when both the Senate and House were controlled by Republicans.