By skyforbes 
BAILEY T. STEEN | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2018
We’ve all heard the common sense line that “correlation does not imply causation.” If you fall asleep before the sun goes down, that doesn’t mean that you caused the sundown. The same principle applies to the Republican narratives blaming the opioid crisis on the Medicaid expansion that’s funded by 2010’s The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).
In September, The New York Times reported that Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was leading an investigation into the cause of the drug epidemic ravaging through the country. Their months long process lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee finally releasing a report and conducting ensuing hearings suggesting it was the public health insurance program for the working class that was to blame.
New findings suggests this couldn’t be further from the truth.
According to a new report from Vox, the Republican narrative is that it was Obamacare — through its incentivising for states to expand medicaid to “include everyone at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (around $16,750 a year for an individual)” — that made access to gateway opioid painkillers significantly worse.