During a House Energy Committee hearing last week, Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) asked Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about her Alternatives To Pain Act and the opioid epidemic.
00:00Thank you, Chair Carter, and I thank the Secretary for being here with us today.
00:06Secretary Kennedy, I'm going to gauge my line of questioning on some of the things you're just asking.
00:16As you indicated, you're aware of the opioid epidemic and that it's still a pressing issue in many parts of the country, including in my district.
00:24As a physician, 90% of acute pain patients receive opioids to manage their pain, whether they need them or not.
00:32Between 2011 and 2019, opioid prescriptions decreased by 40% from approximately $250 million to $150 million prescriptions dispensed.
00:42And this is true across most payer audiences, Medicaid private cash patients.
00:46However, among Medicare patients, opioid prescribing actually increased.
00:50Furthermore, Medicare's share of opioid prescribing during this time increased substantially from approximately 20% of the country's opioid prescriptions in 2011 to 35% in 2019,
01:03and that represents a 75% increase in just under a decade.
01:07I have a bill, the Alternatives to Pain Act, that would increase Medicare beneficiaries' access to non-opioid alternatives to pain management medications by limiting patient cost-sharing,
01:19prohibiting the use of utilization management, and encouraging a dialogue between patients and their providers.
01:25I was also the director of the Department of Public Health in Iowa, which handles substance use disorder and behavioral health disorders.
01:32And I think, given your personal experience with this, there was something that you were trying to say.
01:38And if you would, I would like to give you an opportunity to complete your thoughts on the previous question.
01:47Thank you, Congresswoman.
01:49You know, this has been a priority for me.
01:52I've been 42 years in recovery.
01:55I lost a brother to this disease.
01:58I lost a niece during the pandemic.
02:00We've all lost friends.
02:01We've all lost family.
02:03This is a national tragedy.
02:05We should be talking about solutions to it, and we should be working together.
02:10There's no such thing as Republican children or Democratic children.
02:13All our kids are affected by this.
02:16We should be able to talk with each other about this without vitriol, without the vilification,
02:21and try to figure out the best ways for treating our kids.
02:25The Trump administration, you know, the federal government has not done a good job at this.
02:31The Trump administration's policy is to return that money and block grants to the states and let them figure it out.
02:38As I said before, addiction in West Virginia or in Iowa is very different than in San Francisco.
02:45The solutions are different.
02:46And we need to turn those states into laboratories of innovation.
02:53They can figure out how to treat their population the most humane.
02:57Some of the best treatment centers I've ever been to are in rural Tennessee with no federal funding, no state funding,
03:03and getting extraordinary reductions on recidivism.
03:07We want to unleash that spirit of innovation in the states to make sure that we're doing the best we can for our kids.
03:16And in answer to your first question, there's a very, very exciting new drug out there called Jernovex,
03:23which is a non-opioid, very effective non-opioid pain reliever.
03:29And we are doing everything we can across our department to promote access to that solution.
03:35And would you be supportive of something like my bill, Alternatives to Pain Act,
03:39and commit to working with me in providing technical assistance?
03:42Absolutely.
03:43Thank you, Congresswoman.
03:46Also, you've heard concerns about members on HHS restructuring and having restructured a department.
03:53It's never an easy task.
03:55We also know that sometimes money goes to people within the bureaucracy rather than to the actual delivery of care, as you've indicated.
04:03And there's been changes in NIH funding and HHS funding.
04:08And my district, which encompasses southeast Iowa, is very rural.
04:12And I was just wondering if you can explain how HHS will be investing in rural America,
04:16and specifically rural Iowa, to ensure that Americans still have access to vital health care services.
04:21We have a number of programs for doing that, for expanding health care in rural areas.
04:30One of those that I'm most excited about are these innovations in telemedicine and AI nursing.
04:40That is going to deal with some of the treatment, the diagnosis issues.
04:44I've seen these systems in action, and they're extraordinary.
04:49And they, you know, that AI can now diagnose disease as good as any doctor.
04:53Oh, you know, not as good as, let's say, the average doctor.
