Claim: ‘Critical moment’ for firms amid retirements, opioid crisis.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Opioid epidemic
text: as heroin. Many state governors have declared a "state of emergency" to combat the opioid epidemic or undertook other major efforts against it. In July 2017, opioid addiction was cited as the "FDA's biggest crisis". In October 2017, President Donald Trump concurred with his Commission's report and declared the country's opioid crisis a "public health emergency". Federal and state interventions are working on employing health information technology in order to expand the impact of existing drug monitoring programs. Recent research shows promising results in mortality and morbidity reductions when a state integrates drug monitoring programs with health information technologies and

title: Patrick J. Kennedy
text: mental health advocates, business leaders, and government agencies around a common set of principles, including full implementation of the Federal Parity Law. In 2018, "Politico" termed Kennedy "the unlikely go-to player for companies seeking to benefit from the Trump administration’s multibillion-dollar response to the opioid crisis". Kennedy sits on the boards of eight corporations involved with the government's response to the drug crisis. He "holds an equity stake in the firms" and "collects director fees" from the latter organizations, many of which "stand to benefit from fresh efforts in Congress and the Trump administration to combat the opioid crisis". As

title: Opioid epidemic
text: those deaths from opioids. In 2016, the crisis decreased overall life expectancy of Americans for the second consecutive year. Overall life expectancy fell from 78.7 to 78.6 years. Men were disproportionately more affected due to higher overdose death rates, with life expectancy declining from 76.3 to 76.1 years. Women's life expectancy remained stable at 81.1 years. What the U.S. Surgeon General dubbed "The Opioid Crisis" likely began with over-prescription of opioids in the 1990s, which led to them becoming the most prescribed class of medications in the United States. Opioids initiated for post surgery or pain management are one of

title: Opioid epidemic
text: including appointees at ONDCP; the Department of Justice, including the DEA; the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA); and elsewhere in his administration. Avalere Health has researched recent individual state efforts to combat the opioid crisis by providing access to life-saving drugs typically associated with opioid overdoses. Their research measured how states are performing in providing a key frontline treatment for opioid addiction (Buprenorphine), compared to the amount of opioid overdose deaths they have by state. Generally, the more access a state can provided drug users to the drug, the lower the mortality rate amongst opioid addicts were

title: Opioid epidemic
text: shares data through centralized platform. The Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act or the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act was introduced by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 22, 2018 and was advanced on June 22, 2018. The bill includes Medicare and Medicaid reform in order to improve treatment, recovery, and prevention efforts while also strengthening the fight against synthetic drugs like fentanyl. On September 17, 2018, the U.S. Senate approved the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (H.R. 6). The committee reached a final agreement on terms of the

title: Presidency of Donald Trump
text: drug experts and opted instead for the use of political staff. In February 2018, Politico wrote that the administration's "main response" to the opioid crisis had "so far has been to call for a border wall and to promise a "just say no" campaign." In October 2017, the administration declared a 90-day public health emergency over the opioid epidemic and pledged to urgently mobilize the federal government in response to the crisis. On January 11, 2018, 12 days before the declaration ran out, Politico noted that "beyond drawing more attention to the crisis, virtually nothing of consequence has been done."

title: Opioid use disorder
text: introduced a strategic framework called the Five-Point Opioid Strategy, which includes providing access recovery services, increasing the availability of reversing agents for overdose, funding opioid misuse and pain research, changing treatments of people managing pain, and updating public health reports related to combating opioid drug misuse. The prevalence of opioid use and opioid or opiate dependency varies by age and gender, among a myriad of other factors. Men are at higher risk for opioid use and dependency than women, and men also account for more opioid overdoses than women, although this gap is closing. Women are more likely to be

title: Opioid epidemic
text: July 2017, a 400-page report by the National Academy of Sciences presented plans to reduce the addiction crisis, which it said was killing 91 people each day. SAMHSA administers the Opioid State Targeted Response grants, a two-year program authorized by the 21st Century Cures Act which provided $485 million to states and U.S. territories in the fiscal year 2017 for the purpose of preventing and combatting opioid misuse and addiction. CDC former director Thomas Frieden said that "America is awash in opioids; urgent action is critical." The crisis has changed moral, social, and cultural resistance to street drug alternatives such

title: Baron & Budd, P.C.
text: & Budd investigated potential lawsuits that were related to allegations that pharmaceutical distributors “deliberately failed to monitor and report suspicious orders of opioids.” This failed monitoring and reporting, the firm argued, potentially played a role in the opioid epidemic. The law firm had previously won a $177 million settlement against GlaxoSmithKline for the drug Avandia, arguing that the company misrepresented the drug by saying that it reduced adverse cardiac of events, when in actuality it did not. Baron & Budd has been described as "generous in giving back to the community", engaged in activities such as giving holiday presents to

title: Opioid epidemic
text: stifle high-risk prescribing practices (such as prescribing high doses of opioids or prescribing opioids long-term). These new laws fell primarily into 1 of the following 4 categories: In July 2016, governors from 45 U.S. states and three territories entered into a formal "Compact to Fight Opioid Addiction". They agreed that collective action would be needed to end the opioid crisis, and they would coordinate their responses across all levels of government and the private sector, including opioid manufacturers and doctors. In March 2017, several states issues responses to the opioid crisis. The governor of Maryland declared a state of emergency

title: Orrin Hatch
text: Obama. Critics of the bill claim the new law fuels the opioid crisis by limiting the DEA's ability to halt production and distribution by predatory drug companies. DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge John J. Mulrooney II wrote in the Marquette Law Review: "At a time when, by all accounts, opioid abuse, addiction and deaths were increasing markedly, this new law imposed a dramatic diminution of the agency's authority. It is now all but logically impossible for the DEA to suspend a drug company's operations for failing to comply with federal law." Donald Trump's Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the law

title: Subprime mortgage crisis solutions debate
text: managers during these periods. Without proper regulation, the "law of the jungle" rules. Excessive financial innovation that is not controlled is "very risky." He stated: "Self-regulation is meaningless; it means no regulation." Former Chairman and CEO of Citigroup Chuck Prince said in July 2007: "When the music stops, in terms of liquidity, things will be complicated. But as long as the music is playing, you’ve got to get up and dance. We’re still dancing." Market pressures to grow profits by taking increasing risks were significant throughout the boom period. The largest five investment banks (such as Bear Stearns and Lehman

title: Tom Wolf
text: said it would not hinder his ability to work. Following treatment, Wolf's spokesperson announced in January 2017 that Wolf's physician had given him a "clean bill of health". Wolf declared Pennsylvania's heroin and opioid addiction crisis a statewide emergency in January 2018. Pennsylvania became the eighth state to do so. Such a declaration lets Pennsylvania officials "override any current rules or regulations they perceive as hampering the state's ability to address the opioid epidemic". During his time in office, he eliminated the "capital stock tax," which is a tax on the value of a business' assets. Wolf successfully ran for

title: Opioid epidemic
text: decreased the DEA's ability to intervene in the opioid crisis. In December 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act, which includes $1 billion in state grants to fight the opioid epidemic, was passed by Congress by a wide bipartisan majority (94-5 in the Senate, 392-26 in the House of Representatives), and was signed into law by President Obama. As of March 2017, President Donald Trump appointed a commission on the epidemic, chaired by Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey. On August 10, 2017, President Trump agreed with his commission's report released a few weeks earlier and declared the country's opioid crisis

title: Opioid epidemic
text: stress reduction. In the late 1990s, around 100 million people or a third of the U.S. population were estimated to be affected by chronic pain. This led to a push by drug companies and the federal government to expand the use of painkilling opioids. In addition to this, organizations like the Joint Commission began to push for more attentive physician response to patient pain, referring to pain as the fifth vital sign. This exacerbated the already increasing number of opioids being prescribed by doctors to patients. Between 1991 and 2011, painkiller prescriptions in the U.S. tripled from 76 million to

title: Pensions crisis
text: Pensions crisis The pensions crisis or pensions timebomb is the predicted difficulty in paying for corporate or government employment retirement pensions in various countries, due to a difference between pension obligations and the resources set aside to fund them. Shifting demographics are causing a lower ratio of workers per retiree; contributing factors include retirees living longer (increasing the relative number of retirees), and lower birth rates (decreasing the relative number of workers, especially relative to the Post-WW2 Baby Boom). There is significant debate regarding the magnitude and importance of the problem, as well as the solutions. For example, , the

title: Opioid epidemic
text: a "national emergency". Trump nominated Representative Tom Marino to be director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, or "drug czar". One interview with the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where he states that because opioid users are predominantly white and middle class, they “know how to call a legislator, [and] fight with their insurance company.” However, on October 17, 2017, Marino withdrew his nomination after it was reported that his relationship with the drug industry might be a conflict of interest. In July 2017, FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb stated that for the

title: Pensions crisis
text: surreptitiously cut benefits; investment returns have been far lower than workers were told to expect; and, to be fair, many people haven't managed their money wisely. As a result, we're looking at a looming retirement crisis, with tens of millions of Americans facing a sharp decline in living standards at the end of their working lives. For many, the only thing protecting them from abject penury will be Social Security." A 2014 Gallup poll indicated that 21% of investors had either taken an early withdrawal of their 401(k) defined contribution retirement plan or a loan against it over the previous

title: Opioid use disorder
text: As of 2013 in the US, there was a significant increase of prescription opioid abuse compared to illegal opiates like heroin. This development has also implications for the prevention, treatment and therapy of opioid dependence. Though treatment reduces mortality rates, the period during the first four weeks after treatment begins and the four weeks after treatment ceases are the times that carry the highest risk for drug related deaths. These periods of increased vulnerability are significant because many of those in treatment leave programs during these critical periods. Opioid replacement therapy (ORT), also called opioid substitution therapy or opioid maintenance

title: Retirement spend-down
text: The potentially long-lasting collapse in returns on government bonds is taking place against the backdrop of a protracted fall in returns for other core-assets such as blue chip stocks, and, more importantly, a silent demographic shock. Factoring in the corresponding longevity risk, pension premiums could be raised significantly while disposable incomes stagnate and employees work longer years before retiring. Longevity risk becomes more of a concern for individuals when their retirement savings are depleted by asset losses. Following the market downturn of 2008–09, 61% of working baby boomers are concerned about outliving their retirement assets. Traditional spend-down approaches generally recommend