Opioid epidemic looms over Senate's Medicaid talks

The nation's opioid epidemic is looming over the Senate's effort to repeal Obamacare.

Senators from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act are worried about the fate of their residents, especially those affected by the opioid crisis. The trepidation is a big hurdle right out the gate for Senate Republicans working on their own Obamacare repeal legislation after the House passed a bill earlier this month.

"We're just trying to make sure that at a time we are facing this crisis, we are not making things worse," said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

That crisis was responsible for 33,091 deaths in 2015, or 91 a day, with opioid overdoses quadrupling since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Portman's state had one of the highest rates of opioid overdose deaths in 2015, with nearly 30 people per 100,000 dying of an overdose, according to CDC data.