We need to start saving lives with tools we know work instead of making it harder for those fighting addiction to succeed and survive. Most importantly we need to see the life of a person struggling with addiction as more worth saving than the cost of the medicine. Comprehensive reform means acknowledging "new normals."

Let us be as comprehensive in our approach to addiction as it is in taking lives. Every stakeholder, physician, public official and addiction counselor I speak with is thrilled at the momentum and strategy revealed today.

Republican congressional hopeful Dan Innis says the request is "absolutely not a gimmick."