Governor Wolf released the following statement on Senators Bob Casey and Joe Manchin’s focus today on how the Republican approach to cutting health care would worsen the opioid and heroin crisis.
Major advocates for seniors, people with disabilities, and health and human services organizations agree that the unification of health agencies is a change for the good.
Governor Wolf announced that a broad coalition of advocates for seniors, recovery, people with disabilities, and other health and human services populations is speaking out in support of the unification of the departments of Health, Human Services, Aging, and Drug and Alcohol Programs into one Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Governor Wolf commended Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s announcement that Pennsylvania is taking on a leadership role in a bipartisan investigation of opioid marketing and addiction in Pennsylvania and across the country. Shapiro made the announcement at a press conference in the Capitol.
Governor Wolf said that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) statistics on fatal overdoses in Pennsylvania increasing again last year are a call for the state and federal government to redouble efforts to combat the heroin and opioid epidemic, not dial efforts back with funding cuts.