Who should be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee?

Amy Klobuchar will tackle the opioid crisis and mental health

Question: Who should be the 2020 Democratic presidential nominee?
Position‹5 of 8›: Amy Klobuchar
Argument‹2 of 2: Amy Klobuchar will tackle the opioid crisis and mental health

Klobuchar continually champions policies that will serve to curb America's drug epidemic and growing mental health issues.

The argument

Klobuchar's primary policy is a $100 billion plan to decrease drug and alcohol abuse and improve mental health. This plan will focus on prevention, treatment and ongoing recovery for those who need it. The current state of addiction and mental health programmes in the U.S. involves people who desperately want or need help being unable to access it. Klobuchar's innovative policies on addiction and mental health would help huge amounts of the population and stop preventable deaths. Klobuchar proposes to pay for her plan with a 2 cent per milligram of opioid ingredient fee on prescription drugs being sold in the U.S..

Context

The U.S. is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, with an estimated 10.3 million people misusing opioids in 2018. There is also a mental health crisis. An estimated 4.19% of America's adult population had thoughts of suicide in 2017.

Premises

[P1]Amy Klobuchar's signature policy is a $100 billion plan to cut drug and alcohol abuse and improve mental health through prevention, treatment and recovery. [P2] It addresses a system where people who need help currently cannot access it, funded by a fee on opioid ingredients in prescription drugs. [P3] Such policies would help large numbers of people and prevent avoidable deaths. [C] Therefore, because she would tackle the opioid crisis and mental health, Amy Klobuchar should be the 2020 Democratic nominee.

Counter-arguments

While Klobuchar is a strong supporter of mental health, her policies on healthcare generally leave much to be desired. Klobuchar has not endorsed Medicare for All, instead advocating for a public option which will expand Medicare and offer people more affordable health insurance. This is not enough. The American public desperately need total healthcare reform to fix the dysfunctional system they currently live under.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Klobuchar's policies do not address all aspects of healthcare to the degree that is necessary.