Turn the Tide Act

Key Points

• The bill directly appropriates large sums to fight the opioid crisis, including $5.5 billion a year for State Opioid Response Grants through 2031 and $3 billion a year for substance abuse block grants. Funding is steered toward states with the highest overdose death rates, and every state is guaranteed at least $4 million.
• Private insurance, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid plans must cover at least one opioid overdose reversal drug like naloxone with no cost-sharing and no prior authorization. This makes life-saving overdose medicine cheaper and easier to get.
• Starting October 1, 2026, states are barred from requiring prior authorization or other utilization controls before Medicaid will pay for medication-assisted treatment. This lets doctors start patients on addiction medication without waiting for insurer approval.
• To address the addiction treatment workforce shortage, the bill raises Medicaid pay for mental and behavioral health providers to at least Medicare levels through 2030, with 100 percent federal funding for the increase, and boosts the workforce loan repayment program to $65 million a year.
• The bill funds recovery housing at $60 million a year through 2032 and creates a Medicaid demonstration in at least two hard-hit states to test covering recovery housing for people with opioid use disorder who lack a permanent home.
• New grants would create Adverse Childhood Experiences Response Teams combining law enforcement, mental health, and crisis services to help children exposed to trauma, funded at $10 million a year through 2030.