I attended the hearing on House Bill 350 in Dover March 27, and I read Rep. Valerie Longhurst’s April 12 comments in the Cape Gazette. I would like to add a viewpoint from a healthcare consumer and as a local community member who is part of Beebe Healthcare’s board of directors.
The triple aim is a basic premise in healthcare that speaks to quality care provided at affordable rates that is easily accessible. I only see one of those aims being addressed in HB 350, and if you do not think access and quality matter, you are not listening to healthcare consumers.
I do not know how it is in the rest of Delaware, but in Sussex County, there are not enough doctors. Wait times in any emergency room can be problematic. As our population ages, the rates of hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular disease and joint disease are skyrocketing. About 62% of people over the age of 65 in Delaware have been diagnosed with hypertension.
I know that statistic and many more because I am involved as a local, community board member. I have studied our community and relied on data from the State of Delaware. As a member of this community, involved in providing governance to our local health system, I feel that this legislation is aimed at taking control of healthcare away from the local community. I heard language at the March 27 hearing that implied the hospitals were lacking any oversight, and that only the Legislature had the good interests of the healthcare consumers at heart. That is not the reality at Beebe Healthcare. I often hear from my friends and neighbors about experiences good and bad, as do all board members, leaders and team members.
Rep. Longhurst promises there would be no decrease in services, no reduction in the workforce and nothing would lower quality. Estimates I have heard are that more than $300 million could be taken out healthcare spending in Delaware as a result of this legislation. I cannot fathom how that could happen without impacting access and quality.
The desire to bend the cost curve goes beyond healthcare. I would like to spend less on groceries and gasoline and a new car. My mortgage could use some oversight as well. The Green Mountain Care Commission in Vermont, which HB 350 is based on, started with a $2.1 million budget in 2012 and grew to $7.7 million in 2022, topping out at $10 million in 2018. I cannot imagine how much the Diamond State Commission is going to cost Delaware taxpayers, and I have not seen any commitments to quality and access.
When did you last have your blood pressure checked? I often ask because that’s the kind of attention to the health of our community that Delawareans deserve. I admire the leaders at Beebe Healthcare who worry about that too. There are many community programs that invest in the health of our diverse, growing populations. I have not heard anything from Rep. Longhurst that makes me feel that the Diamond State Commission is going to worry about any facet of my community’s health.
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