Biden Administration Unveils $22B Plan to Tackle Opioid Epidemic, Boost Substance Abuse Treatment

The Biden-Harris administration’s proposed budget for 2025 includes substantial funding to support access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and prevention. The proposed budget aims to build upon these efforts by allocating $21.8 billion to combat the surge in overdose deaths nationwide. The budget allocates substantial resources specifically to combat the opioid overdose crisis, building upon the administration’s previous initiatives, such as encouraging housing providers to stock opioid overdose reversal drugs like Narcan.

A fact sheet released by the White House about the budget touted Biden’s elimination of the X-Waiver – this move increased the number of providers who can initiate opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment from 129,000 to almost two million.

The new budget includes plans to increase access to OUD care even further, with $21.8 billion allocated to SUD treatment and recovery, includes a requirement for insurers to have an adequate network of behavioral health providers. It also strengthens the Department of Labor’s (DOL) ability to enforce mental health and SUD requirements among large group market health plans. Finally, the proposal would increase funding for the State Opioid Response grant program, which was designed to provide states with resources to improve access to medications for the treatment of OUD (MOUD), prevention, harm reduction and treatment services for SUDs.