Marovitz, a giant who changed the world for Seniors and those with medical needs

In my "Ray Hanania on Politics" Video Podcast, I interview Billy Marovitz about his career and many achievements; and he has done a lot, including bringing Generic Drugs to Illinois

By Ray Hanania

FREE/Billy Marovitz, Politics, Generic Drugs, Podcast/Sunday, March 30, 2025 (Note Video Podcast below)

One of the elected officials I most admire is Billy Marovitz, who I first met when I was covering Chicago City Hall, and have since maintained a friendship with him, seeing the vastness of all the things he has done.

Marovitz is a guy who can’t sit still. He is a former Illinois legislator, who served in the Illinois House in 1974 and then went on to the Illinois Senate in 1980. He was only 25 when he entered politics, with no political allies, PACs or politicians behind his campaign. He rose to political influence serving as Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party for 25 years.

As a legislator, Marovitz introduced and passed the Illinois Generic Prescription Drug Act which forced Big Pharma to sell Generic Drugs at a discount of 50 to 60 percent of their prescription costs, a huge benefit to seniors and those with health issues.

“I could write a book about how the well-funded opposition led by Big Pharma, the Pharmaceutical companies, and the Medical Society and the Pharmacists, they were all against me, a little freshman, they were all against me,” Marovitz recalled.

Chicagoland political titans Tom Manion, Mike Flanner, Skinny Sheahan, Ray Hanania, Thom Serafin, Billy Marovitz, Dave Ochal and Tom O'Donnell

“But we put together a coalition of, of people from senior citizen organizations, consumer organizations and the media, newspapers, radio stations, television stations that editorialized for this. And we beat the special interests, we beat the big money and we got this generic drug law passed.”

Marovitz is mentioned in a 1977 New York Times story after testifying before a Senate Hearing in Washington D.C. on why Generic Drugs were important.

“Another witness. Representative William Marovitz of the Illinois State Assembly said that a bill favoring generic drugs had been presented for action in the assembly and that ‘more lobbying pressure was exerted’ against it by the drug industry ‘than on any other piece of legislation in the Assembly last session.’

Mr. Marovitz said medical and drug groups had engaged in ‘scare tactics’ to try to show that generic drugs were harmful. The reason, he said, was that drug concerns make a higher profit on trade name products than they do on generic drugs.”

When the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, he wrote a hit musical called “Miracle: The Musical” about the amazing impact it had and that went on to win many awards.

Marovitz defended everyone’s rights and wrote and passed the Illinois Hate Crimes Law that made hate speech and acts of hatred a crime, protecting everyone in Illinois.

He got into the restaurant business and opened Carnivale, featuring a Latin-Fusion menu and entertainment all for diners in Chicago and also in Paradise Island in the Bahamas.

It was at Carnivale last Wednesday (March 26) that Marovitz hosted an appearance by 1996 Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd who recently released her own book, “Notorious.”

In the book, Dowd writes about her many celebrity interviews including with Paul Newman and Diane Furstenberg -- who was invited to have a menage a trois with musicians Mick Jagger and David Bowie and then after seeing them naked and wrinkly, decided not to have the sexual escapade.

Rather than just have a book signing, Marovitz read the book and interviewed Dowd on stage for some 250 guests where they discussed many of her stories.

I got to interview Marovitz this week for my podcast and we talked about all of this, including about politics.

“I was about 25, 26 years old and got, got no endorsements from any newspaper, radio station. We were a very active, highly visible campaign at every bus stop, at every L station, at every shopping center, every weekend,” Marovitz said.

“We were energized. And, you know, I went everywhere that I could, and people seemed to like what I was saying. And we wound up winning by a landslide, which kind of surprised me, and I know it surprised a lot of other people.”

What is the secret to winning?

“Well, you have to have a good message. You have to have a good messenger. And being a good messenger means you got to get to people. You can't hide yourself. You got to use the media. Use the media as your friend. That's really important to get your message out and let people know that you're genuine, that you're real,” Marovitz said as Illinois rounds the corner to its own election this week on April 1.

What the biggest change needed in Illinois politics?

“The one thing that would have the biggest effect is changing the law where people can gerrymander districts. If every district in the whole country was configured the same way, the right way, not who controlled the pen or controlled the state, it would make everything way more competitive. And people would have to get along and go along and work together in the states and in Congress,” Marovitz said.

“Just imagine if you had to be competitive every single time. Most of these races when you're in an elected official, either in the House or the Senate, they're non-competitive races. There's no big primary, there's no challenge. If you had a challenge every time you were running, you would have to be more responsive to your constituents.”

Marovitz said he was saddened by today’s political polarization and the personal attacks that dominate political competitiveness. He said that people can disagree but they shouldn’t be disagreeable.

Get more information on Marovitz at CarnivaleChicago.com. Listen to the podcast on my YouTube channel @RayHanania.

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