An energetic, visionary, and proven leader, Eric Lesser will partner with our next Governor to make sure she is the most successful in the country. Together, they will work on the biggest issue our state faces: the skyrocketing cost of living. Eric has a plan to fix our broken transportation system, build more housing, create better jobs, protect our environment, and make our state more affordable and equitable.
Eric understands that Massachusetts has so much going for it. But despite our Commonwealth’s considerable advantages, it’s harder and harder to live here. It’s too expensive – housing is out of control, transportation is unreliable, and childcare costs are crushing families. Meanwhile, small pockets of our state boom while entire regions are left behind. Our current situation doesn’t work: it creates skyrocketing prices and gridlock in some places, and vacuums jobs and opportunity from others.
Eric has always known that mental health is just as important as physical health, and has fought to have that principle enshrined into law. He’s also highlighted the important intersections between mental health, substance abuse disorders, and other issues.
Mental health has become a crisis for our young people, especially since the onset of COVID-19. For this generation to recover and thrive, we must vastly expand the capacity of our mental health infrastructure in schools and communities.
In Western Mass, Eric has seen how the opioid epidemic has ravaged our small and rural communities. He supports legislation that seeks to help people recover and prevent future drug addictions. With opioid deaths on the rise once more, we cannot afford to lose ground.
Within his first six months in office, Eric authored and passed a new law creating a bulk purchasing program for Narcan — a drug that reverses opioid overdoses — to ensure that schools and first responders could afford this life-saving drug. In 2018, Eric also successfully advocated to allow pharmacies to dispense doses of Narcan.
Eric authored legislation to close the pharmacy shopping loophole for addictive opioid painkillers, preventing people from having easy access to these dangerous drugs.
Understanding that we must also prevent the development of future addictions, Eric wrote legislation requiring schools to include prescription opioid abuse prevention as part of health education curricula.
Eric authored a bill that requires the Group Insurance Commission, Medicaid, and private insurers to provide coverage for buprenorphine (Suboxone), injectable naltrexone (Vivitrol), and methadone treatment programs.
Eric has received a Special Recognition Award from the Massachusetts Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors for his work.
He voted for the Mental Health ABC (Addressing Barriers to Care) Act, which increased access to care, created a telehealth pilot program, and created a mental health workforce pipeline. He and his colleagues have expanded on these efforts with the Mental Health ABC 2.0 Act, which would guarantee annual mental health wellness exams, enforce mental health parity laws so insurers cover mental illnesses like physical ones, and overhaul how emergency departments address mental health crises.
In response to COVID-19, Eric backed the “Patients First Act,” which required insurance carriers, including MassHealth, to cover telehealth services.