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Two-Thirds of New Yorkers in Opioid Treatment Rely on Medicaid, Mayor Says

By  Rachel Holliday Smith and Katie Honan | June 30, 2017 2:03pm | Updated on July 3, 2017 7:25am

 First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks at a March press conference about opioid overdoses in New York at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, joined by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O'Neill.
First Lady Chirlane McCray speaks at a March press conference about opioid overdoses in New York at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, joined by Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O'Neill.
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Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office

NEW YORK CITY — Two-thirds of New Yorkers seeking treatment for opioid addiction do so using Medicaid, the mayor said this week — a program that would likely be significantly reduced by Congressional proposals to replace the Affordable Care Act.

Mayor Bill de Blasio urged Congress to rethink its proposals on the landmark health care bill in a call with reporters organized by the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors on Wednesday, particularly in light of the opioid crisis that has gripped many cities, including New York.

“We've seen a horrible, horrible reality — over 1,100 people died of opioid overdoses in New York City last year,” he said. “It's in every kind of neighborhood.”

The total number of deaths from opioid overdoses in 2016 — 1,374 people — increased 46 percent from the previous year, according to the most recent Department of Health data.

Currently, 38,000 New Yorkers are in treatment for opioid addiction using methadone or buprenorphine, two medications used in opioid replacement therapy, the mayor’s office said. Of those, the mayor said two-thirds — or about 25,000 people — are insured for the treatments through Medicaid, which could be significantly cut or altered under both the House and Senate’s health care proposals.

► RELATED: Staten Island Families Torn Apart By Opioid Epidemic

“New Yorkers who are getting treatment — who are, thank God, not going down the road to an overdose — they're getting that treatment with Medicaid,” de Blasio said Wednesday.

“We're going to lose more young people. We're not going to have a place for them to turn for help,” he continued. “The opioid crisis is one of the clearest examples of why we can’t diminish the idea of health care in America.”

Current bills in Congress seeking to change the ACA would make major changes to Medicaid according to reporting on the legislation by The New York Times, including setting per-person limits on spending and significantly reducing the total amount spent on the Medicaid expansion.

Opioid addiction has spiked in the city in recent years, affecting Staten Island and the South Bronx particularly hard. However, the most recent data from the Department of Health numbers show increases in overdoses in every demographic and age group.

► RELATED: In Fight Against Opioids in Hasidic Crown Heights, 'Nobody's Immune'