If you're a first-responder in Missouri as part of a fire department, you're three times more likely to respond to a drug overdose than you are a fire. So it's a problem. I don't know exactly what the right number is, but certainly I think members of the Senate and House are rightly concerned about it.
Roy BluntIt's a problem that Congress has really taken on in the last couple of years. We tripled the money that was being - to be spent on opioids. Legislation sort of followed that. Then we doubled that tripling. I think, at some point, there's a limit to how many times we can multiply that in a short period of time, but this is a real problem. In Missouri, more people die from drug overdoses than car accidents.
Roy BluntMore that members of Senate know about Medicaid, in many ways, the harder it is to make that final decision, because you have got so much information, and you know how many other things are impacted here by one decision here that, five decisions later, has made a big difference in somebody's life.
Roy BluntI think one of the lessons we should have learned from what's happened with the current plan is that there is insurance coverage, but there is not really, many times, access to health care. If you have these high deductibles, there is every - there is a disincentive to get the policy, because you would have to pay another - I think the average of deductible policies on the individual market.
Roy BluntThere's no doubt that cable news hosts can say things that the president of the United States shouldn't say, and people can be harsh at you. That doesn't mean you benefit by being harsh back.
Roy BluntIf you're a first-responder in Missouri as part of a fire department, you're three times more likely to respond to a drug overdose than you are a fire. So it's a problem. I don't know exactly what the right number is, but certainly I think members of the Senate and House are rightly concerned about it.
Roy Blunt