OPINION
President Donald Trump is continuing his crusade to protect the health of Americans which he started nearly a decade ago.
When he first ran for president in 2016, Donald Trump, was one of the few national leaders who truly recognized the scourge of the opioid crisis devastating communities in places like New Hampshire, Ohio, and elsewhere nationally.
He made fighting this epidemic a central part of his campaign.
As president, he quickly took action, declaring the opioid crisis a national public health emergency early in his first term.
Now, in his second term, President Trump's administration is continuing that work through the MAHA movement — Make America Healthy Again.
He's doing so by taking on one of the root causes of the crisis: the overprescribing of opioids.
The MAHA report rightly calls out how our healthcare system became too reliant on dangerous painkillers while failing to give patients access to safer, more effective options.
Fortunately, new solutions are emerging that can put real policy solutions into place, such as the Relief of Chronic Pain Act, introduced by Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana.
This bill represents the next critical step in our nation's fight against both chronic pain and opioid addiction. It's a common-sense, cost-effective way to expand access to non-opioid treatments for millions of Americans who suffer with pain.
One in five adults in the United States lives with chronic pain — from joint and nerve pain to back pain, fibromyalgia, and endometriosis.
For many of these patients, pain limits their ability to work, care for their families, and live independently. Yet despite the human and economic toll, our healthcare system continues to steer people toward opioids while making it difficult and expensive to access non-addictive alternatives.
According to the CDC, nearly 8.6 million Americans 12 years and older misused prescription opioids in 2023.
Too often, that path begins with legitimate pain treatment but leads to dependency and often self-destruction.
As I have argued elsewhere, our government is partly responsible for the opioids pandemic as its subsidies greatly spurred demand, particularly through the drug benefit of Medicare Part D.
That's why it's so important to redesign Medicare to reduce unnecessary opioid exposure while simultaneously ensuring that patients can find relief from chronic pain.
The Relief of Chronic Pain Act would achieve this by expanding access to non-opioid pain medications under Medicare Part D and breaking down bureaucratic barriers that keep safer treatments out of reach.
First, it would waive the deductible for non-opioid treatment options, immediately making them more affordable.
Second, it would end insurance practices like "step therapy" and prior authorization, which create red tape that prevents patients from immediately accessing the medicines their doctor recommends.
Finally, it would ensure certain non-opioid treatments are available at the lowest cost-sharing tier, further reducing patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
And while patients suffer, chronic pain inflicts massive costs on the entire American economy. The U.S. loses more than $300 billion annually in missed work and lower productivity due to chronic pain, and another $560-$635 billion in direct healthcare costs.
In contrast, the Relief of Chronic Pain Act would cost just $0.69 billion over ten years.
This is a rounding error compared to the economic and human toll chronic pain inflicts.
This is exactly the kind of common-sense policy President Trump's MAHA movement was designed to inspire: lowering costs, restoring freedom to patients and doctors, and helping end America’s dependency on dangerous opioids.
From renewed public health emergency declarations to securing the border against fentanyl traffickers and holding China, Canada, and Mexico accountable through tough trade and tariff measures, it builds on the administration’s broader efforts to combat the opioid epidemic.
Many Americans are still suffering from pain, and they deserve real relief that doesn't risk addiction or dependency.
The Relief of Chronic Pain Act offers that solution.
It's a small investment with a big return for healthier Americans, safer communities, and moving us closer to finally turning the page on one of the most devastating public health crises in our nation’s history.
Tomas Philipson is former Acting Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Donald Trump.
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