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One of the side effects of the coronavirus pandemic was a drastically shortened spring session of the General Assembly, which means far fewer laws taking effect on New Year’s Day than in a typical year.
Only about a half-dozen new state laws and policies take effect Jan. 1. A year earlier, more than 250 new laws took effect, including the landmark legalization of recreational marijuana.
Nonetheless, some of the new laws will have a significant effect on people’s lives. Here’s a look at what’s new as of Friday.
New year brings new laws, including insulin price limit, while minimum wage goes up another dollar
Minimum wage increase
Workers are in line for a $1 increase each year on Jan. 1 until the minimum wage hits $15 per hour in 2025.
All of that is a result of a law that went into effect in 2019. While the increase is a welcome boost for some workers who are most at risk during the pandemic, not everyone is celebrating.
Business organizations, many of which opposed the increase in the first place, have called for the hikes to be suspended as shops and restaurants struggle to keep their doors open amid the coronavirus-induced economic slowdown.
The Illinois Retail Merchants Association was among the groups that pushed for the increases to be postponed, but not repealed, during the pandemic.
“It’s going to make it harder for those businesses that are barely hanging on to hang on and, if they hang on, to keep the people they’ve currently got employed,” said Rob Karr, the association’s president and CEO.
But those arguments have been rejected by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who made a minimum-wage increase his first major policy win upon taking office last year, and the Democratic-controlled legislature, which saw previous attempts at raising wages thwarted by Pritzker’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
“This economy is going to recover. … Particularly people who are working at the lowest wages in our economy, the poorest working people in Illinois, we think that they deserve a raise,” Pritzker said during a coronavirus briefing in mid-December.
Chicago’s minimum wage, currently $14 per hour for companies with more than 20 workers, will go up to $15 per hour on July 1.
Cook County also has a higher minimum wage, currently $13 per hour, but most municipalities have opted out.
Insulin price limit
Illinois will become one of the first states to limit the out-of-pocket price of insulin through a law takes effect Jan. 1.
The cost will be limited to $100 for a 30-day supply, regardless of how much insulin is needed to fill a patient’s prescription.
As insulin prices have soared, some people with diabetes who rely on the medication to regulate levels of glucose in their blood and prevent life-threatening complications have been forced to turn to lower-quality products or to ration their supply. That can have dire consequences.
An estimated 1.3 million Illinois residents have diabetes and rely on insulin to regulate their blood sugar levels.
The new law applies to state-regulated commercial insurance plans but not federally regulated plans.
The legislation received bipartisan support when it passed in the Illinois General Assembly during the 2019 fall veto session, despite opposition from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
“We’re obviously, at this moment in particular, very grateful for the amazing advances in medical technology, with the race for the (coronavirus) vaccine and everything else, but these amazing medications are only effective if people can afford them,” said state Rep. Will Guzzardi, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the insulin price cap legislation in the House.
Guzzardi said the measure, while somewhat limited in scope, is a first step toward “more far-reaching reforms” related to pharmaceutical prices.
The new law also calls for a trio of state agencies to probe the factors that have led to insulin price surges and to issue a public “insulin pricing report” with policy recommendations that address how to prevent overpricing in the future.
Colorado was the first state to pass an insulin cost limit measure.
Missing person DNA
Law enforcement agencies will be able to begin collecting DNA samples of a missing person’s family members in an effort to create a reference DNA sample, under a new law that takes effect Jan. 1.
The law adds the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System to the list of laboratories law enforcement can coordinate with when they are trying to find a missing person.
The law does not allow for DNA samples collected in missing person cases from family members to be kept by law enforcement agencies once the missing person is located.
“Successfully finding a missing person requires law enforcement to move fast, and we want to make sure they have every tool available to do their job,” said state Sen. Tony Munoz, the Chicago Democrat who sponsored the legislation. “By using the national system, we have a better opportunity of finding missing people sooner.”
The new law also calls for a missing person’s information to be submitted to the national system within 45 days, and in high-risk missing person cases, law enforcement agencies would be required to submit a packet of all DNA samples to the system within 30 days.
Address confidentiality
A program that protects the addresses of domestic violence victims is expanding to include victims of sexual assault and stalking.
The Illinois attorney general’s address confidentiality program allows eligible victims to use a substitute address and mail forwarding. Once an application is approved, state and local governments must use the substitute address when creating new public records or corresponding with the program participant, according to the attorney general’s office.
More information is available on the attorney general’s website at https://illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/victims/address_confidentiality.html.
