A new bipartisan bill aims to eliminate regulations that make it harder to get treatment for opioid addiction than it is to get opioids.

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Amanda Hall remembers what it was like trying to get help for her opioid addiction in rural Eastern Kentucky more than a decade ago. Options were limited. Support was scarce. But when she finally accessed buprenorphine- a medication used to treat opioid use disorder- everything changed.

"I was really able to stabilize myself," Hall told me. "I was able to take my dose and feel normal. I was able to go to work. I was able to be present with my family."

The medication, commonly known by the brand name Suboxone, quite literally saved her life. "Without it, I don't know if I would even still be here," she said.

Now Hall works as a social worker with a national organization focused on criminal justice and addiction policy. And she's watching closely as Kentucky lawmakers file a bill that could make it significantly easier for people struggling with opioid addiction to access the same treatment that helped her.