Senate Bill 120 (SB 120), which reforms the Primary Care system in Delaware, will be before the Senate Executive Committee on Wednesday, April 28 at 2:30 pm. The Primary Care Subcommittee asks for your help to save Primary Care.
Our ASK:
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Call YOUR State Senator ASAP asking for their support of SB 120. If you do not have your Senator's phone number, you can find it here: www.legis.delaware.gov.
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Call members of the Senate Executive Committee (comprised of five members of Senate Leadership) for their support of SB 120. Their contact information:
- President Pro Tempore-David Sokola (302/744-4139)
- Majority Leader - Brian Townsend (302/744-4165)
- Majority Whip - Elizabeth Lockman (302/744-4168)
- Minority Leader - Gerald Hocker (302/744-4144)
- Minority Whip - Brian Pettyjohn (302/744-4177)
Short Talking Points:
- The Primary Care Reform Collaborative has been working for three years to discuss how to make sure Delaware’s Primary Care system is preserved. All the data supports the fact that Primary Care is underfunded in Delaware. Further, all parties on the Collaborative agree that Primary Care needs saved. However, no consensus was reached at the Collaborative.
- Patients are losing access to care because too many Primary Care Physicians are retiring early, leaving the state, or changing to concierge medicine. Further, almost no new Primary Care Physicians are choosing to practice in Delaware.
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Legislation is needed now. That legislation is Senate Bill 120 and we ask for your support of the bill.
Longer Talking Points (should the legislator want to go further):
- The Primary Care Reform Collaborative has been working for three years to discuss how to make sure Delaware’s Primary Care system is preserved. All the data supports the fact that Primary Care is underfunded in Delaware. Further, all parties on the Collaborative agree that Primary Care needs saved. However, no consensus was reached at the Collaborative.
- Primary Care is the backbone of our health care system. It is universally acknowledged that patients who have a Primary Care Physician have better outcomes and lower cost.
- But the Primary Care system is deteriorating in Delaware (as well as across the country), due to underfunding.
- Because of poor reimbursement, many Primary Care Physicians are retiring early, leaving the state, or changing to concierge medicine. Almost no new Primary Care Physicians are choosing to practice in Delaware, due to this poor reimbursement.
- This results in poor access to care for Delawareans. Many of our citizens are losing their primary care physicians, and few primary care physicians are accepting new patients.
- This poor access to primary care is why Delaware has worse health outcomes and higher overall health care costs compared to other states.
- Primary Care physicians have offered suggestions of how to fix the problem. Despite unanimous recognition that a solution is needed, most suggestions have come from the Primary Care doctors and the Office of Value Based Health Care.
- Legislation is needed now. That legislation is Senate Bill 120, and we ask for your support of the bill.
- This increased spend on Primary Care will improve access to care, improve health outcomes, and reduce overall costs of care in Delaware.
