Illinois Governor Vetoes Heroin Bill Over Medicare Treatment Funding [FEATURE]
Faced with a public health crisis related to heroin and prescription opioid use, the Illinois state government created a bipartisan Heroin Task Force in a comprehensive effort to address the problem from all angles. The task force created a set of policy recommendations that were embodied in House Bill 1, the Heroin Crisis Act.
Heroin is taking a toll not only in Chicago, but in its suburbs. (kirk.senate.gov)The bill passed the House and Senate in May, and was sent to Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) in June, where it sat on his desk until this week. On Monday, Rauner finally acted — not by signing the bill, but by vetoing critical sections of it that he says the state cannot afford. He has now sent the bill back to the legislature and asked it to remove the offending sections.
But saying, “People are dying,” the measure’s House sponsor, Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), has vowed an effort to override the veto. An override could be within reach — the bill passed by veto-proof majorities in both houses — but for members of a governor’s own party, a veto override is a hard vote to take.
…“There’s a human cost to not doing it,” Lang said. “People are addicted, people are sick, people are dying. You want to talk about the costs of providing methadone and Narcan to addicts, but you forget totally that if you cure them or they get off the stuff, there’s a savings to the Medicaid system on a different line item, because they’re no longer in emergency rooms, they’re no longer a burden to law enforcement.”
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