After Governor JB Pritzker’s signatures on Friday, rideshare drivers can unionize in Illinois, a new law seeks to regulate and classify plastic pellets as a pollutant, and the state will exercise greater oversight of a federal prescription drug discount program.
Those are a few of the 75 new laws the governor signed as he works through the legislation sent to him in the spring legislative session.
He’s signed over 350 of the nearly 400 bills that lawmakers sent his way, leaving him with about 20 more to consider in short order.
Two related bills will bring more state oversight of a federal prescription drug program known as the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Congress established that program in 1992 to give steep discounts on prescription drugs to community health centers, safety-net hospitals and other providers that serve large numbers of uninsured or Medicaid patients.
But as Medicaid eligibility expanded since then, so did the 340B program. That has led to healthcare providers and drug manufacturers accusing each other of abusing the program.
