COVID-19 Pandemic 

• Seeing the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed inequality and flaws in our existing healthcare system, Senator O’Connor has worked tirelessly with his fellow senators to pass several pieces of healthcare reform legislation, the most recent being the Patients First Act.
• The act increases access to telehealth service, ends the unfair practice of surprise billing, expands the healthcare workforce to enhance quality care, and analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on our healthcare system. 
• As we move forward with the ongoing pandemic, Senator O’Connor continues to turn to accomplished scientists and experts in the field of epidemiology and medicine.

Prioritizing Transparency, Equality, and Access in Healthcare 

• As a leader in healthcare, Senator O’Connor believes Massachusetts should provide the very best quality care for every resident who needs it.
• In 2017, he was instrumental in passing An act furthering the Health empowerment and affordability by leveraging transformative healthcare, with the goal of fighting for lower costs for consumers, improved coverage and increased transparency.  
• In 2019, after hearing from a staff member about how his pharmacist’s cost transparency had saved his family hundreds of dollars on his son’s eczema prescription, Senator O’Connor wrote legislation to bring this type of savings to every family. An Act relative to pharmaceutical price transparency and cost sharing would prohibit “gag orders” put on pharmacists by drug provider organizations, allowing every pharmacist to provide customers with information about prescription drug prices and the clinical efficacy of lower-priced alternative drugs.
• Senator O’Connor also voted in favor of the Pharmaceutical Access, Cost and Transparency (PACT) Act to further lower prices.

Improving Healthcare Access from Day One 

• Senator O’Connor is committed to passing legislation which focuses on the challenges around prenatal and maternal health in Massachusetts. In 2018, Senator O’Connor filed, An Act establishing a newborn health and safe sleep pilot program, which would create a program within the Department of Public Health to distribute safe-sleep receptacles, commonly known as “baby boxes”, to new parents and guardians free of charge.
• The bill sought to promote safe sleeping practices, as well as to bring new mothers into a closer relationship with their healthcare community, improving prenatal and postnatal care. He has also supported bills to study barriers to substance use treatment for women in the perinatal period, to address racial inequities in maternal healthcare in Massachusetts, and to increase options for safe, professional birthing care in the Commonwealth by licensing midwifery.

Mental Health 

• In 2018, Senator O’Connor helped pass a bill increasing access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT), exploring tools to reduce harm and save lives, expanding education and prevention efforts, and addressing the high rates of co-occurring conditions of substance use disorder (SUD) and mental illness. 
• Serving on the Promote Prevent Commission, Senator O’Connor takes a hands-on approach to support efforts to subsidize and mainstream mental health care as a form of preventative wellness.

• Decades of scientific study and practice prove that evidence-based programs, policies, and practices can prevent addiction, substance misuse, depression, anxiety, suicide, violence, risky behaviors, and many other behavioral health issues.
• The Promote Prevent Commission supports acting early and investing upstream, applying an integrated behavioral health approach, implementing the science of prevention, investing in a continuum of care, and building infrastructure and partnerships to support a working model.