Roughly Speaking

Michael Botticelli, who served as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy in the Obama administration, says President Trump can't have it both ways — advocating more treatment for drug addiction while calling for repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The 2010 law defined addictions treatment as an “essential benefit” that must be covered through insurance policies. Not mentioning the effect ACA repeal would have on the nation’s response to the opioid crisis, Botticelli says, was a "glaring omission" of the Christie commission that called for a declaration of a national emergency.Botticelli now runs the Grayken Center for Addiction Medicine at Boston Medical Center. He is also now a distinguished policy scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Links:President Trump can't have it both ways