On June 30, 2025, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan voted against a motion to strike any provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cuts Medicaid payments for substance use disorder treatment, and against one to protect rural hospitals' mental health care, then cast one of the 50 votes that passed the law. Medicaid covers nearly half of adults with opioid use disorder, and in Alaska two-thirds of Medicaid adults diagnosed with it are covered through the expansion group that now faces work requirements and six-month eligibility checks.
Sullivan voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department cut the federal addiction and mental health agency by more than half and closed all 10 of its regional offices, and Linda McMahon, whose Education Department stopped $1 billion in school mental health grants. He also voted to confirm the officials who stopped enforcing the 2024 mental health parity rule for job-based insurance.
Dan Sullivan's Votes and Confirmations on Mental Health and Addiction Care
- Sullivan Voted Against Protecting Medicaid Payments for Addiction Treatment in June 2025. On June 30, 2025, Dan Sullivan voted no on a motion to send the bill back to committee with changes that would strike any provision cutting Medicaid payments for substance use disorder treatment. It failed 47 to 53. The same day he voted no on a motion to strike provisions that would force rural hospitals to reduce or stop providing services, including emergency care, mental and behavioral health care, which failed 49 to 51. Medicaid covers 47% of all nonelderly adults with OUD, the opioid use disorder at the center of the overdose crisis, and Medicaid covers over half (56%) of those receiving medication to treat it, KFF found.
- Sullivan Cast One of the 50 Votes for Work Requirements That Reach People in Recovery. On July 1, 2025, Sullivan voted yes on H.R. 1, which passed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote. Its Medicaid work requirement takes effect by January 1, 2027 for the expansion group, and states must check exemptions every six months thereafter, starting no later than December 31, 2026. KFF found that among Medicaid expansion enrollees specifically, 24% have a diagnosed mental health or substance use disorder, and that Arkansas's earlier work requirement ended with over 18,000 people losing coverage. The law exempts only people with a disabling mental disorder, and the Commonwealth Fund warned that many who lose coverage will remain eligible for Medicaid but who did not report. The rule written by Mehmet Oz's agency, whom Sullivan voted to confirm, means Fewer people will qualify as medically frail, Georgetown researchers found.
- Sullivan Voted Against Repealing Six-Month Medicaid Checks in January 2026. On January 30, 2026, Sullivan voted no on an amendment that would have repealed the law's six-month Medicaid eligibility checks. It needed 60 votes and failed 49 to 51. CBO estimated the six-month checks will increase the number of people who are uninsured by 700,000 in 2034, according to KFF.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Cut the Addiction and Mental Health Agency by More Than Half. On February 13, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services; he was confirmed 52 to 48. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, part of Kennedy's department, has shrunk by more than half to about 400 people since February 2025 and in April 2025 was losing all 10 regional offices and the Office of Treatment Services, Roll Call reported. The agency is currently without an administrator and is missing other leaders, Stateline reported in November 2025. In April 2026 the agency told grantees that treatment money cannot be used for harm reduction services, including sterile syringes and fentanyl test strips, according to KFF's tracker.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm Linda McMahon, Whose Department Stopped $1 Billion in School Mental Health Grants. On March 3, 2025, Sullivan voted to confirm Linda McMahon as secretary of education; she was confirmed 51 to 45. In April 2025 her department said it would stop paying out $1 billion in federal grants that school districts used to hire counselors and psychologists. One district said, We're gonna end up going back to having two counselors in our schools. A court later ordered some grants restored, but its order applies only to some grantees in the sixteen Democratic-led states that sued.
- Sullivan Voted to Confirm the Officials Who Stopped Enforcing the Mental Health Parity Rule. Sullivan voted to confirm Scott Bessent as treasury secretary on January 27, 2025, Lori Chavez-DeRemer as labor secretary on March 10, 2025 and Keith Sonderling as deputy labor secretary on March 12, 2025. In May 2025 their departments, with Kennedy's, announced that The Departments will not enforce the 2024 Final Rule on mental health parity, which requires job-based health plans to cover mental health and addiction care on the same terms as other medical care.
What the Cuts Dan Sullivan Backed Mean for Alaskans in Treatment
- Opioid treatment. In Alaska, 6,522 Medicaid adults were diagnosed with opioid use disorder in 2021, and 66% of them were covered through the Medicaid expansion group that faces the new work requirement and six-month checks, according to KFF data.
- Expansion enrollees with mental illness. Among Alaska's Medicaid expansion enrollees, 12,006 had a substance use disorder, 11,578 had a mental illness and 2,662 had a serious mental illness in 2021, according to KFF data: the people who will have to prove an exemption or report work hours.
- Regional support. SAMHSA's regional office for Alaska closed in April 2025, when the agency was losing all 10 regional offices, the staff who help states apply for and manage addiction and mental health grants.
Frequently Asked Questions About Dan Sullivan on Mental health and addiction
What is Dan Sullivan's record on mental health and addiction under Trump?
Dan Sullivan voted against protecting Medicaid payments for addiction treatment and against protecting rural hospitals' mental health care, then voted for the 2025 law whose work requirement reaches people in recovery. He voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department cut SAMHSA by more than half, and Linda McMahon, whose department stopped $1 billion in school mental health grants.
Does the Medicaid work requirement Dan Sullivan voted for exempt people with mental illness or addiction?
Dan Sullivan voted for a law that exempts people with a substance use disorder or a disabling mental disorder, but it can only exempt people with “disabling” mental disorders, and they must prove it to the state, the Commonwealth Fund found. Under the rule from Mehmet Oz's agency, Fewer people will qualify as medically frail, according to Georgetown's Center for Children and Families.
How many Alaskans with addiction rely on Medicaid expansion?
In Dan Sullivan's state, 66% of Medicaid adults diagnosed with opioid use disorder were covered through the expansion group, according to KFF data for 2021. Those Alaskans must meet the work requirement Sullivan voted for, unless they can prove an exemption.
Last updated: 2026-10-25