Dear Mr. President: Addiction is a disease. It’s time we start treating it like one.



Right now, more than 100 million Americans — nearly one in three people — suffer directly or indirectly from addiction to alcohol and other drugs.

But many of these people aren’t getting the appropriate care and support they need despite the law being passed in 2008. Your Administration’s failure to release final regulations on how the law should be implemented means that insurance companies are left to choose what they pay for, and how care is delivered.


This is dangerous, wrong and puts those who need our help the most at the center of a bureaucratic quagmire.

Patients are forced to grapple with confusing information, pay unexpectedly high fees, abandon potentially life-saving programs, or even drop out of treatment entirely - causing untold damage to American families.

Mr. President, release the final regulations and hold insurers accountable for proper coverage. We need accountability and rigorous enforcement of this law. The lives of our loved ones hang in the balance.