General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Big Story is: “There’s (Figurative) Blood On The Floor At Leg Hall”. You (and I) just knew that the Hall would be swarming with hospital execs and healthcare providers of all stripes to hyperventilate over HB 350 (Longhurst). And it was:
Longhurst said in 2018 the state established the health care spending benchmark as a way to “prevent drastic increases in costs” that could “price out” Delawareans from getting the services they need. The spending benchmark has been between 3% and 4%, but health care providers have only hit that target in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
“Every other year, health care spending has far surpassed the benchmark we set as a state, including years with 11% growth in health care costs,” Longhurst said during Wednesday’s House Administration Committee meeting discussing the bill. “And the question is why? Because we, despite setting the goal, have no mechanism as a state to help meet those targets.”
Brian Frazee, President & CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association – representing several hospitals statewide, said the bill is not the best way to reduce health care costs nor ensure “robust health care delivery” in Delaware.
“This bill would take away the authority of our local community leaders who serve on our hospital boards, and give it to a politically appointed, five-member board that would essentially take control of our hospitals,” Frazee said. “We fundamentally think that that is the wrong approach because our local communities and our local community leaders know what’s best for our hospitals, and we think that should remain.”
That statement sounds a little, um, disingenuous to me. He makes it sound like a bunch of plain ol’ folks who live in the community get together to determine fees that hospitals charge for services, not the hospitals and the corporations who run them. I’m having difficulty buying into that. Now, do I think that a ‘politically-appointed board’ should make these decisions? I don’t know. I do know, however, that bills can be introduced for a variety of reasons. If HB 350 can have a jawboning impact on rising health care fees, then it will have been effective, even if it is never voted on. I look forward to following this one as I think that a rock has been overturned, with the resultant scurrying.
Here is yesterday’s Session Activity Report. Looks like all the notable bills discussed here yesterday cleared their respective committees, including both SB 13 and HB 350 (a House Substitute was introduced in lieu of the original).
Perhaps the most notable bill on today’s House Agenda is HB 355 (Osienski), which:
…provides legal protections for financial institutions and other entities that provide financial or accounting services to cannabis-related businesses that are licensed or registered under Delaware law. Specifically, it clarifies that banks, credit unions, armored car services, and providers of accounting services are not subject to prosecution under Delaware law merely by providing lawful services to licensed businesses engaged in the production, distribution and sale of cannabis in Delaware.
Also worth checking out–HB 275 (Morrison) and HB 313 (Neal).
A similar agenda awaits in the Senate–bills that incrementally improve things. Like SB 194 (McBride), SS1/SB 164 Hoffner, and SB 198 (Hansen).
All in all, a pretty productive week. After today’s session, the General Assembly recesses until Tuesday, April 16.
“Because we, despite setting the goal, have no mechanism as a state to help meet those targets.”
Somewhere, Joe Lieberman is smiling.
If you want to hold the line on healthcare costs in Delaware, eliminate the Certificate of Need law from the Health Resources Board. This would provide for more competitive services resulting in lower costs. The market would determine the cost of procedures and eliminate the need for a political review board suggested by HB 350.
How about both?
In my opinion, when it comes to healthcare, especially with a proposed politically appointed review panel as in HB 350, the less government interference the better.
Hi Alan,
In my opinion when it comes to healthcare and healthcare access, the private (for profit), insurers only care about their obscene profits and the ordinary person be damned. It’s also my opinion that when a health care monopoly such as Christiana Care publicly and proudly proclaims its support for the Medicare Advantage plan, almost imposed on behalf of Highmark they should be overseen. Also when such a statewide monopoly as Christiana Care has some of the highest costs in the nation in a State the size of Delaware they merit oversight and even investigation.
And make no mistake about it Medicare Advantage is “privatization” of Medicare and will destroy Medicare if unchecked.
Representative John Kowalko (retired)
John – Why would the heir to a retail pharmacy fortune say this. LOL.
Government intervention is only right when it transfers money to private businesses, like Happy Happy Jr. did. Because that’s CapITALiSm!
I’d really like Alan to address John’s points. I know Alan and John are light years apart politically, but Alan, we need conservatives like you to do a better job fighting for average people. The market IS NOT fixing this mess. Corporations have every incentive to raise prices and gouge the public. They have no reason to show any moderation.
John’s points are fair, no matter what you and other conservatives think of him. What is your SOLUTION? You are criticizing one possible solution, but you aren’t offering one in return. Corporate profits and shareholder payouts are literally killing people in this country and further causing the widening chasm of the rich and poor.
Nunya, the only reason the health industry is not lowering prices is because hospitals, nursing homes, and other health facilities need to show a need in the community. This controls competitive forces and keeps prices high. Let competition come in and prices will drop.
History has already proven, Alan, that competition does NOT lower prices. This is a capitalist myth backed up by years and years of data and research. Again, you aren’t actually providing a solution. Capitalism is failing millions of Americans who are being left behind in a morass of death and despair.
“tThis would provide for more competitive services resulting in lower costs. ”
Look how well that philosophy has worked to control spending and costs at the University of Delaware. No thanks.
And, we need a medical school here in Delaware to grow generations of docs in Delaware and keep them here!!! Meyer is the only candidate talking about this.
Government should be creating a positive environment for healthcare, not hampering it. O’mara wants to turn Delaware’s healthcare system into some Scandanavian socialist model, while BHL wouldn’t even know where to begin. Healthcare isn’t really a policy platform for her so much as it is a nice saying every now and then.
In Sussex, we have Bayhealth and Beebe fighting for patients’ cash in the eastern and central parts of the county – setting up offices and surgical centers and ERs all over the place with apparently no coordination or planning. We don’t need competition in healthcare. We need the best strategic allocation of resources that will reduce costs for patients. I certainly don’t trust anyone in the C-suites of either system to make the smart decisions. If the solution is a state-supervised board, I’m all for it.
If that’s really Alan Levin up there, he should be disclosing that he’s a director of the Beebe Medical Foundation. He serves alongside such luminaries as Christian Hudson, noted RWNJ; Lynn Kokjohn, Thurman’s daughter; Mike Meoli, McDonald’s fry-flipper; Senator Gerald Hocker, who never met a regulation he liked; and car salesman Charlie Burton.
I really don’t believe anyone pushing this bill gives a crap about “pricing out Delawareans”. It’s all about the state budget. Most of these folks were in the GA when it voted to hand Delaware Blue Cross with $240million in excess reserves over to Highmark.
First, I respect John’s position and agree with his efforts to bar the State from playing ‘bait and switch’ with Delaware retiree’s healthcare. With regard to the proposed panel contained in HB350, having people who are political appointments govern what a procedure should cost is wrong. Allowing the competitive market and consumers to determine what is an acceptable price works far better.
Lastly, gross profit margins in pharmacies has fallen from 32% from the beginning of 2000 to 13%. This is before you take out increased salaries and overhead through the years. While service has not kept pace, the market and competitive forces have driven down the costs to consumers and insurers. Increased competition in healthcare will lower prices, increase job creation, and construction jobs to meet the need.
John and I are saying the same thing, costs in healthcare need to come down. We just come at it from different ways.
Capitalism has no place in healthcare…..not in the delivery or the insurance side. “Competition” only dilutes the expertise. Tell me Alan, would you rather your CT scan be read by a radiologist who has read thousands or just a few? Get your market forces out of my healthcare.
Pretty soon it will be read by an AI-assisted computer that will do it better than either.
It has already begun.
Can you imagine if all those $$’s spent on ads to lure you to one company’s Medicare Advantage Plan over another company’s Medicare Advantage Plan were actually spent on healthcare?
“Lastly, gross profit margins in pharmacies has fallen from 32% from the beginning of 2000 to 13%. ”
The industry built too many pharmacies in a race to capture those sweet opioid profits. Pharmacies left the strip malls and clearcut trees to build those castle-like structures everywhere. At the same time every supermarket and big-box store installed their own pharmacies. Now they are overbuilt and can’t hire enough workers to stay open, and are way overdue for a market shakeout and consolidation, for which Alan is a pioneer.
” having people who are political appointments govern what a procedure should cost is wrong. Allowing the competitive market and consumers to determine what is an acceptable price works far better.”
Setting a low bar there. The competitive market = race to the bottom. That’s how Medicare Advantage gets its customers. Competition and the free market can be counted upon to come up with the most efficient system – but efficiency in health care can be deadly.
The answer, as it usually turns out to be in a capitalist democracy, is competition with oversight – oversight, not governance. I’m not saying this bill would or would not be the correct step, but to rule out any kind of oversight at all would be – sorry for the pun – short-sighted.
Of course, a well-administered system of oversight would involve appointing competent people on a continuing basis, something I’ve noticed is a dicey proposition. In society based on self-interest, the demand for people who are both competent and civic-minded usually outstrips the supply.
“oversight” not “governance” …….Well said.
I see at least one post that shouldn’t have been flagged that’s in the trash.
If you think that might be your post, let me know, and I’ll post it.
I don’t automatically rescue comments in the trash because it might indeed have been trashed by the poster.