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Oklahoma now has a new tool to help fight opioid addiction in the state. The federal government has approved the expansion of Medicaid coverage in Oklahoma to pay for different treatments. Oklahoma is now the first state in the entire country to offer this coverage and state leaders said it's a big help. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority said this federal approval allows for Medicaid coverage and reimbursement for prescriptions that treat opioid addiction like methadone, naltrexone and others. It also covers opioid use disorder treatment services like counseling and behavior therapy. (Cooper, 3/16)

Thousands of Oklahomans now have access to more opioid treatment services through the state’s Medicaid program SoonerCare. In the past, certain prescriptions for treating opioid addiction weren’t covered through Oklahoma’s Medicaid program. But that’ll now change after the Oklahoma Healthcare Authority received approval from the federal government to increase Medicaid coverage for opioid treatment programs. (Jones, 3/16)

“We believe people need access to care, and we also know that Medicaid expansion has been successful across the country,” said Deb Fischer-Clemens, the president of the South Dakota Nurses Association, one of the groups backing the expansion effort. South Dakota is one of just 12 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, in the decade since the legislation was signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2010.Most of the remaining holdouts are conservative Southern states such as South Carolina and Texas, where opposition to the law known as Obamacare still runs deep among Republican elected officials. But voters in six Republican-leaning states have approved ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid, including in Missouri and Oklahoma in 2020. (Bush, 3/16)

Several Democratic lawmakers are pushing Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey to accept more than $900 million in the COVID stimulus bill to expand Medicaid to the state’s low-income adults. “I don’t care whether we call it Obamacare,” said Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro. “We could call it Kaycare. It could be Alabama Health Care. But we need to expand Medicaid and the time to do it is right now.” (Yurkanin, 3/16)