nj.com - Exclusive: Christie to announce $200M plan to fight heroin epidemic

9/18/2017

By Stephen Stirling

 

TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie will announce this week $200 million in new initiatives to target the opioid crisis, primarily designed to overhaul addiction services, as he makes a final push on the issue he hopes will define his legacy.  

In a 90-minute interview with NJ Advance Media on Friday, Christie said the funding will be targeted toward underserved populations -- the uninsured, individuals on Medicaid, babies born with addiction and their mothers. The money will come out of the budgets of eight state departments, he said.

The governor said he hopes the initiative will significantly improve the way New Jersey approaches substance abuse treatment and prevention by putting more emphasis on making sure care is geared toward sustained sobriety. That will be done by standardizing data collection and building seamless channels for holistic care for addicts through incentive-based programs that reward providers who focus on the long-term.

"It's changing the way we do this stuff to evidence-based treatment," Christie said. "You say your methods are great, every treatment center out there says they've got the right way to handle it. Well, prove it."  

Christie said he plans to announce the programs in a series of events in the coming week. The initiative is likely the capstone in what has been an aggressive push by the governor to address the opioid crisis in New Jersey, which NJ Advance Media estimates killed more than 2,000 people in 2016 alone.

Christie has directed hundreds of millions of dollars toward prevention, treatment and recovery initiatives during his second term, and said he instructed his staff to look for loose ends that could be tied up before he leaves office in January.

"I said I don't want you to worry about money, and I want you to come back to me with a wish list," Christie said, referring to his cabinet and senior policy. "It's probably about $200 million worth of spending, but it's stuff that needs to be done."

Among the more than two-dozen plans included in the new initiative:

  • About $40 million will go toward establishing an incentive-based treatment program for those without insurance or on Medicaid.
  • The Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services will use $36 million to provide housing and support for adults with substance abuse disorders.
  • Nearly $35 million will go toward several programs supporting opioid-addicted mothers, their babies and broader families.
  • The recovery coach program, which pairs recovering addicts with recent overdose survivors, will be expanded to every county in New Jersey for $21 million. 

Christie said he would like his work in New Jersey to become a national model. He chairs the opioid commission empaneled by President Donald Trump and expects its final report to be issued in the coming months. 

Many of the proposals in the panel's interim report, issued in late July, mirror his efforts in New Jersey. Christie said he expects Trump to support and enact much of what's put forth by his panel, but acknowledged others, like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, disagree with his approach to substance abuse.

"He's got a number of different voices in his ear, I'm just going to make sure mine's the loudest. I'm usually pretty good at that," he said.

He said Trump's staff is doing the necessary work to declare the opioid crisis a national emergency, which would open a direct door to federal assistance on the opioid crisis.  Trump has come under criticism for not formally signing the declaration despite voicing his support for doing so.

Christie said he spoke to Trump as recently as Wednesday on the issue, and planned to again this weekend while the president is in New Jersey. 

"I think the president is where we need him to be and is going to be strong on this, but it's taking a little time," he said.  

Perhaps most notably, Christie said he hopes to soon get New Jersey a waiver from the Medicaid provision barring the federal health program from covering inpatient treatment at most facilities. 

"Once we get the waiver, I'll be very public about it.  And I think there will be lots of other governors who, if they haven't applied for the waiver already, will," he said. "That will open up, literally, tens of thousands of beds across the country." 

Elimination of the provision, known as the Institutes for Mental Disease Exclusion, which bars treatment facilities with more than 17 beds from receiving federal support, would undoubtedly be a costly move at a time when Trump and Republicans are trying to decrease healthcare spending.  

But Christie said it's a cost worth bearing. 

"The deaths in 2016 (nationally) are going to be about 64,000," Christie said. "Every three weeks we have a 9/11 due to drug overdoses in this country. Are you really willing to put up with that level of death, to have 17 9/11s a year? I'm not."