Will County adopts health department items for 2026 federal legislative agenda, including workforce and behavioral health priorities

The Will County Board voted to adopt updated federal legislative recommendations submitted by the county health department for its 2026 federal agenda, including funding priorities the department said are needed to sustain communicable-disease capacity, the 340B pharmaceutical safety-net program, and measures to expand the behavioral-health workforce.

Health department representatives asked the board to support measures that would preserve or restore federal funding streams that helped build local public-health and clinical capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that would maintain access to discounted pharmaceuticals for uninsured and underinsured patients through programs commonly referred to as 340B. The department also asked the board to back proposals to make mental-health and substance-use services more broadly reimbursable by Medicaid and…