These are descriptions and reasons for passing some of the bills that Commissioner Denn has asked the General Assembly to consider. To read the Commissioner's full legislative agenda, click here.
Fact Sheet About Senate Bill 146
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What Would Senate Bill 146 Do?
Set up a statewide health insurance purchasing pool for small businesses and individuals. If the bill is funded at the currently requested amount, the pool would enroll 32,000 to 36,000 people in its first year, and those people would see anywhere between a 10 percent and 30 percent cost savings on their health insurance. Some of that cost savings would be lower premiums; other savings would be from lower deductibles and co-pays.
Key Points About Senate Bill 146:
We need legislative action on health insurance costs now, not next year or the year after. Senate Bill 146 is the only comprehensive, bi-partisan legislation pending in the General Assembly to address the cost of health insurance for working families and small businesses. It is sponsored by the chairs of the House and Senate insurance committees, and endorsed by a wide array of business and advocacy groups.
Senate Bill 146 would take advantage of the state government's position as the largest consumer of health insurance services in Delaware by requiring companies that offer health insurance to State of Delaware employees to participate in the pool created by the bill. It would have no exclusions based on pre-existing illnesses, and for those individuals and businesses that qualified to participate in the pool (32,000 to 36,000 are estimated to enroll in the first year), there would be a 10 to 30 percent cost savings on health insurance.
The cost of Senate Bill 146 ($13 million) is less than 3 percent of what the state spends on the Medicaid program, and less than a third of what it spent on gross receipts tax cuts for business last year. This is a financial bargain for the state.
S.B. 146 should be passed and funded during this legislative session.
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Fact Sheet About Senate Bill 236
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What Would Senate Bill 236 Do?
Allow the state to review health insurance rates for most of the companies that sell to individuals and small businesses, and turn those rates down if they are excessive.
Key Points About Senate Bill 236:
Delaware is one of a very small number of states that does not permit its Insurance Department to regulate individual or group health insurance rates to determine if those rates are excessive.
Delaware's Insurance Department already regulates some small categories of health insurance rates (such as Medicare gap insurance), as well as most types of property and casualty insurance, so regulating health insurance rates is something that Delaware has the expertise to do but is simply forbidden by statute from doing.
Our health insurance carriers are doing extremely well financially, and the time has come for them to have some reasonable oversight as to what they are charging their customers.
Senate Bill 236 will be a significant tool in the state's effort to hold down the increase in health insurance rates.
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Fact Sheet About Senate Bill 123
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What Would Senate Bill 123 Do?
Provide a small financial subsidy to doctors at risk of leaving their practice areas as a result of medical malpractice rates. It is expected that OB-GYN doctors in Kent and Sussex Counties would be among the first recipients of this subsidy. Neither taxpayers nor policyholders would pay for the subsidy.
Key Points About Senate Bill 123:
Women and newborn children in Kent County are at serious risk, because Kent County is losing significant numbers of OB-GYN physicians. One of the reasons for this drop in OB-GYNs is the high level of medical malpractice insurance rates.
Senate Bill 123 will provide a small subsidy for doctors in high-risk practices to help pay their medical malpractice insurance. This is not an uncommon practice; in fact, Delaware is the only state in this region of the country that does not provide some type of subsidy to doctors to pay their malpractice premiums.
This is designed to be a short-term solution--the bill has a time limit of 5 years.
The funding for the subsidy will not come from taxpayers, and will not come from policyholders. It will come from a small assessment against the excess financial reserves of health service corporations. Health service corporations, such as Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Delaware, receives millions of dollars in tax breaks from the State of Delaware every year. To the extent that they have used those tax breaks to amass excessive surpluses, it is appropriate for them to be asked to give a tiny fraction of their excess back to help deal with a public health problem.
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