美国国家公共电台 NPR Communities Key To Fighting Opioid Crisis, HHS Secretary Says

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The Trump¹ administration is making new moves to combat a national health crisis.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in our country. And opioid overdose deaths have nearly quadrupled since 1999. This is a total epidemic².

MARTIN: That's President Trump at an event about substance abuse in March. The president has talked a lot about fighting opioid addiction³, but there are concerns his policies might actually take resources away from those who need help.

I spoke⁴ with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price about that on the heels of a listening tour that he went on this week around the country to discuss opioid addiction. That tour took Price to West Virginia and other states hard hit by painkiller⁵ and heroin⁶ overdoses.

TOM PRICE: The purpose of this tour is to punctuate⁷ the president's commitment to solving the opioid crisis. The numbers, as you know, are absolutely astounding⁸ - 52,000 overdose deaths in 2015, 33,000 of those by opioid overdose. So what we're trying to do is to learn from folks on the ground. What are their best practices? What kinds of things are they doing that are working to solve this crisis?

MARTIN: When you were in West Virginia. You talked about expanding the resources that states have on hand to solve the epidemic to solve this challenge. What resources specifically are you talking about, and who might get them?

PRICE: Well, this administration's commitment to this is unparalleled. There are hundreds of millions of dollars that are coming forth⁹ to fight the opioid crisis. Just two or three weeks ago, we let from the federal government about $485 million of grants to states. So resources are important, but they're not everything because we're still losing as a nation in this arena¹⁰.

MARTIN: So you talk about all the resources that have been allocated¹¹. At the same time, the Trump administration's new budget plan proposes massive cuts to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has historically been the agency that leads on combating drug abuse. It's proposed that that budget gets slashed¹² by 95 percent. How do you square that?

PRICE: Yeah. This is an office within the White House, not within the Department of Health and Human Services but within the White House. And I think if you step back and look at the entire federal spending on the opioid crisis, folks will see that, in fact, by hundreds of millions of dollars more spending is occurring on the opioid crisis. So...

MARTIN: So was it just viewed that it wasn't effective, that the office under the auspices¹³ of the executive branch wasn't working, and so there was a decision to reallocate that money through HHS?

PRICE: The budget's a work in progress, so I don't know that any final decisions have been made. But the president's commitment to this challenge is unquestioned.

MARTIN: You have supported the effort to repeal¹⁴ and replace the Affordable¹⁵ Care Act. How does the new health care proposal help deal with the opioid crisis?

PRICE: Well, the health care proposal itself is an effort to try to save the health care system from the challenges that it currently has. Premiums¹⁶ are going up. Deductibles are going up. So it's failing the very people that it's supposed to help. So the goal of any new health care legislation is to improve that system so that every single American has access to the kind of coverage¹⁷ that they want for themselves and for their families.

MARTIN: Although on this issue, the bill actually overturns a provision in the Affordable Care Act that had required insurance companies to provide coverage for substance abuse treatment. The new bill gives insurers, as I understand it, an out so they don't have to do that anymore.

PRICE: No. What it does is stipulate¹⁸ where those decisions should be made. Should those decisions be made at the federal level, or should they be made at the state level? And there's a mountain of evidence that demonstrates that when those decisions are made at the state level, they're more responsive to the individuals being represented by the constituents¹⁹.

MARTIN: Tom Price is the secretary of Health and Human Services. Thank you so much for your time.

PRICE: Thanks, good to be with you.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

3 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 painkiller   

n.止痛药

参考例句：

• I shall persuade him to take the painkiller.我将说服他把药吃下去。
• The painkiller only provides him a short respite from his pain.止痛药仅仅让他在疼痛中有短暂的疏解。

6 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

7 punctuate   

vt.加标点于；不时打断

参考例句：

• The pupils have not yet learned to punctuate correctly.小学生尚未学会正确使用标点符号。
• Be sure to punctuate your sentences with the correct marks in the right places.一定要在你文章句子中的正确地方标上正确的标点符号。

8 astounding   

adj.使人震惊的vt.使震惊，使大吃一惊astound的现在分词)

参考例句：

• There was an astounding 20% increase in sales. 销售量惊人地增加了20%。
• The Chairman's remarks were so astounding that the audience listened to him with bated breath. 主席说的话令人吃惊，所以听众都屏息听他说。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

11 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。

12 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 auspices   

n.资助，赞助

参考例句：

• The association is under the auspices of Word Bank.这个组织是在世界银行的赞助下办的。
• The examination was held under the auspices of the government.这次考试是由政府主办的。

14 repeal   

n.废止，撤消；v.废止，撤消

参考例句：

• He plans to repeal a number of current policies.他计划废除一些当前的政策。
• He has made out a strong case for the repeal of the law.他提出强有力的理由，赞成废除该法令。

15 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

16 premiums   

n.费用( premium的名词复数 )；保险费；额外费用；（商品定价、贷款利息等以外的）加价

参考例句：

• He paid premiums on his life insurance last year. 他去年付了人寿保险费。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Moves are afoot to increase car insurance premiums. 现正在酝酿提高汽车的保险费。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

18 stipulate   

vt.规定，（作为条件）讲定，保证

参考例句：

• International rules stipulate the number of foreign entrants.国际规则规定了外国参赛者的人数。
• Some manufacturers stipulate the price at which their goods are to be sold.有些制造商规定出售他们生产的商品的价格。

19 constituents   

n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素

参考例句：

• She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
• Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》