Senate Majority Leader Bryan Townsend and House Speaker Valerie Longhurst, the prime sponsors of House Bill 350 (S), released the following joint statement Tuesday:
“Delawareans are spending more on healthcare than people in nearly every other state, while often getting substandard outcomes.
None of the fear mongering or threats we have heard from the Delaware Healthcare Association over the last month will change that fact. Neither will inaction by the Delaware General Assembly. We must take the steps Delawareans need and deserve.
Tomorrow, the Senate Executive Committee will release House Bill 350 (S) for a final vote that will likely come later this month.
House Majority Whip Kerri Evelyn Harris, meanwhile, introduced a new bill today that will address one of the biggest concerns we have heard from Delaware’s largest hospital systems. House Bill 395 will replace an initial limit on price increases based on 250% of Medicare prices with one based on a more flexible consumer price index.
This is only the latest in a series of responsible compromises that legislative sponsors have incorporated into House Bill 350 (S), which underwent three revisions in the House after being introduced in March. The bill now would give hospitals multiple opportunities over the course of several years to achieve reasonable prices before any sanctions are even considered.
We have and will continue to engage with Delaware’s hospitals on a daily basis as we work to ensure that more profits generated from providing healthcare to Delawareans are being spent on keeping Delawareans healthy.
No one should think this is our first or only attempt to rein in hospital pricing. While the Carney Administration worked with Delaware’s largest hospital systems for years, they continued to blow through benchmarks with abandon. Delaware hospitals now rake in significantly more profit than the national average, while the First State is consistently ranked in the top 10 most expensive states for healthcare.
Our communities simply cannot afford to accept rising healthcare costs with stagnant healthcare outcomes.
We also want to make crystal clear that no version of this bill ever proposed making a single decision about what treatments are right for you and your family. That is what we trust our dedicated and hard-working doctors and nurses to do.
This policy debate is about making healthcare more affordable for you and your families. It’s about making sure that healthcare experts who are more accountable to the taxpayers have agency over healthcare pricing.
House Bill 350 is a fiscally responsible and measured path forward that will help Delaware families and small businesses get the healthcare they need at prices they can afford.”
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