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Opinion: Rural Americans need help with ‘deaths of despair.’ Repealing the ACA won’t do that

The Affordable Care Act gets plenty wrong. But on behavioral health, it gets a lot right. Repealing it would worsen the scourge of deaths of despair in rural America. Why…
People pray before setting out on a 2017 march through the streets of Norwalk, Ohio, against the epidemic of heroin in their community.

Rural America is overwhelmed by suicides and overdoses, so-called deaths of despair. Those in power offer well-meaning words but no meaningful action. Worse, they may be making rural America sicker.

In the ongoing national health care debate, coverage for behavioral health needs to be front and center. If rural policymakers are serious about addressing suicides and overdoses in their communities, repealing mandatory behavioral health coverage

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