Richard Baum

Richard Baum
Acting Director of National Drug Control Policy

Baum has worked in the White House for nearly twenty year in various positions within the Office of National Drug Control Police. He was appointed acting head of the Office by President Trump. While ostensibly the head of U.S. drug control policy, Baum is not a member of the "President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis," chaired by former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.

The charter of the President's commission includes1:

1. identify and describe existing Federal funding used to combat drug addiction and the opioid crisis;
2. assess the availability and accessibility of drug addiction treatment services and overdose reversal throughout the country and identify areas that are underserved;
3. identify and report on best practices for addiction prevention, including healthcare provider education and evaluation of prescription practices, and the use and effectiveness of State prescription drug monitoring programs;
4. review the literature evaluating the effectiveness of educational messages for youth and adults with respect to prescription and illicit opioids;
5. identify and evaluate existing Federal programs to prevent and treat drug addiction for their scope and effectiveness, and make recommendations for improving these programs; and
6. make recommendations to the President for improving the Federal response to drug addiction and the opioid crisis.

The defeat of the Republican health care repeal of the ACA ("Obamacare") keeps in place Medicaid coverage for lower income Americans. That is a sign of hope for those hardest hit, low-income Americans in our most economically depressed areas. Medicaid covers both medication and counseling, and has saved lives. Yet Republicans, it appears, wish to gut Medicaid and remove substance abuse coverage as an "essential" health insurance benefit. People do not choose to abuse substances. People cannot predict if they will fall victim to substance abuse. The Commission would best serve its mission and the needs of working Americans by insuring universal coverage. At a minimum, look to control the cost of drugs and medical procedures—priced by what the market will bear, not by the value delivered. Abroad, the same medications and surgical procedures can cost one tenth of what they do in the U.S. The cure for high insurance premiums is the control of costs, not returning to the era of low-cost "policies" which covered virtually nothing and which economically gutted families whose members included those with pre-existing conditions. Eventually, that is all of us.