Last week, the House of Representatives voted 392-26 to approve a landmark health care reform called the 21st Century Cures Act. Among those 392 were all nine members of the Massachusetts House delegation.
The bill includes $1 billion over two years to help state governments fund opioid abuse prevention programs, along funding for research initiatives like Vice President Joe Biden's "Cancer Moonshot."
But the bill has come under fire from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who said it was filled with "huge giveaways" to the pharmaceutical industry and an example of "why people hate Washington."
Bill Keating, one of the nine from Massachusetts who supported the bill, said he believed the bill's pledged investment toward fighting the opioid epidemic outweighed Warren's criticisms.
"As with most pieces of legislation, you have to look at the overall benefit and clearly, to me, the overall benefit is a billion dollars—not just authorized, but actually out the door and being appropriated—to fight the opioid epidemic," Keating told Boston Public Radio Tuesday.
"This is something that just claims too many lives per day, about four lives every day in Massachusetts, and we're seeing an uptick again despite our efforts," he continued.
Keating noted that some of the provisions Warren criticized did not make it into the final bill, including a provision that would have exempted drug and medical companies from having to report payments made to doctors for continued medical education.
"There were reasons to raise those issues," Keating said.
To hear more from Congressman Bill Keating, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
