Are Policy Strategies for Addressing the Opioid Epidemic Partisan? A View from the States

Colleen M. Grogan is a professor at the University of Chicago in the School of Social Service Administration. Her research interests include health policy, health politics, and the American welfare state. She has written extensively on the history and current politics of the US Medicaid program. She also is completing a book manuscript titled The Rise of America's Conservative Health Care State, which examines the historical development of political strategies and motivations behind hiding the expanding role of government in the US health care system. She is associate editor for the health policy section of the American Journal of Public Health.

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Clifford S. Bersamira is an assistant professor at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Myron B. Thompson School of Social Work. He is the principal investigator for Hawai‘i CARES, the state's program funded by the Department of Health, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division, to develop a statewide single-entry care coordination system for substance use disorder treatment. He received his PhD and AM (MSW equivalent) from the University of Chicago and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Previously he provided technical assistance to state governments and conducted policy research with the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors.

Phillip M. Singer is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Utah. His research focuses on state health policy and politics, comparative social policy, and implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Bikki Tran Smith is currently a fifth-year doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Chicago. Her broad research interest explores the intersection of race, place, health, and health policy. She has conducted more than 10 years of research and practice combined in the areas of behavioral health, health policy, housing, homelessness, disabilities, and technology in the classroom.

Harold A. Pollack is the Helen Ross Professor of Social Service Administration and an affiliate professor in the Biological Sciences Collegiate Division and Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago. He is codirector of the University of Chicago Health Lab and the University of Chicago Crime Lab. His current research concerns interventions to serve individuals living with substance use or psychiatric disorders who come into contact with law enforcement and correctional systems.

Christina M. Andrews is an associate professor at the College of Social Work at the University of South Carolina. Her research focuses on strategies to increase access to opioid-use disorder treatment. She has conducted extensive research on the role of the Affordable Care Act in improving access to addiction treatment. She is principal investigator of a five-year Research Scientist Development Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to assess the effectiveness of Medicaid health homes in treating addiction and reducing the need for acute care for addiction-related conditions. She received her doctoral degree from the University of Chicago.

Amanda J. Abraham is an associate professor of public administration and policy in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on the impact of federal and state policy on the accessibility and quality of substance use disorder treatment and the adoption, diffusion, and implementation of evidence-based practices for the treatment of substance use disorder, organizational change, and workforce development. She currently serves as principal investigator and coinvestigator on numerous federal grants funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the US Department of Agriculture.