Dr. Manny: Trump can revolutionize health care

Back in May, I declared my support of now President-elect Donald Trump as the right candidate to tackle America’s drug epidemic.

Now, more than ever, I think that as we watch this revolution evolve, it will bring a lot of positive change to our health care system – not only by way of repealing ObamaCare, but in how we care for our communities for many years to come.

Here is a look back at what I said during Trump’s run up to the White House earlier this year:

America is in the midst of a drug and mental health epidemic. The crisis before us has spiraled completely out of control under the Obama administration, and the numbers are staggering. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of heroin-related overdose deaths nearly quadrupled between 2002 and 2013, with more than 8,200 deaths in 2013. While the headlines tend to focus on the rising levels of heroin addiction, this one drug is not acting alone. All around us opioids, prescription drugs and other illegally purchased drugs are claiming the lives of mothers, fathers, children, neighbors and teachers at alarming rates.

If we do not act quickly to get a handle on these issues, they will endanger our future generations to come. I know that the solutions will require input from physicians, pharmaceutical companies, health care workers, church leaders and the like, but we will need the voice of a true unifying leader to make any one policy work. I believe that voice is Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Before I am attacked for believing that Trump is the best-suited candidate to tackle this issue, let us first consider the facts.