Physician-assisted death leads Delaware health care reforms

Why Should Delaware Care?
Spending by Delawareans on health care has risen dramatically in the last decade, and new efforts by state lawmakers are intended to help drive down costs, open access to more services and provide new care options.

Delaware lawmakers wrapped up the 2025 legislative session on Tuesday morning, passing dozens of bills related to the state’s health care system. Some of the top bills include physician-assisted death, health insurance reforms and protections for people with medical debt. 

Health care spending in Delaware increased 9.1% between 2022 and 2023 to nearly $11 billion, according to an annual assessment by the Delaware Department of Health & Social Services.

On a per-capita basis, Delawareans spent $10,588 on health care in 2023 – or about an eighth of the median gross household income for the state.

Here’s a look at some of the bills that passed this year that aim to impact health care:

Physician-assisted death 

In May, Gov. Matt Meyer signed House Bill 140 into law, making Delaware the 12th state to legalize physician-assisted death, also known as medical aid in dying. The law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2026, or sooner if the final regulations under the act are created before then.

The Ron Silverio/Heather Block End-of-Life Options Act, named after two individuals who died while advocating for the measure, allows adults with six months or less to live to request and self-administer prescribed medication to end their lives.

Rep. Eric Morrsion (D-Glasgow), who sponsored the bill, was able to get the bill through this legislative session, after former Gov. John Carney vetoed a virtually identical proposal last year. At the bill signing, Susan Lahaie stood next to legislators and advocates who pushed to get the bill passed, while holding a picture of her late husband, Ron Silverio. 

“Ron would have said that ‘terminally ill people of Delaware can now focus on living without having to worry so much about how they will die,’” she said.

Gov. Matt Meyer signed legislation in May that will legalize physician-assisted death in Delaware beginning no later than next year. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL

Pre-authorization in Delaware

Lawmakers passed a bill that would reform how a major part of the health insurance industry interacts with Delaware health care providers. The bill targets pre-authorization, or a practice where a patient’s health insurance plan has to approve specific medications, tests or procedures before the plan will cover it. 

Senate Bill 12, sponsored by State Sen. Bryan Townsend (D-Newark), would lower the response time between a medical provider’s request to an insurance company to get a procedure pre-approved. 

Julie Prosseda, a family medicine doctor at ChrisitanaCare Hospital, showed up in support of the bill at a committee meeting in June. She said that several times a day she has to tell patients she’s not sure if a medicine she’s prescribing is covered by that patient’s insurance plan. 

“I then will have to tell them, ‘I do not know if the medicine that I’m prescribing that you need is covered by your insurance. I won’t know until I send the prescription to the pharmacy and it is run through your insurance,’” she said. 

With faster pre-authorization of medications, lawmakers hope to speed up the process of getting medications in the hands of patients.

Medical debt protections

Senate Bill 156 would prevent medical debt history from being included on a person’s credit consumer report. Sponsored by State Sen. Spiros Mantzavinos (D-Elsmere), the bill intends to protect people with medical debt from being discriminated against when it comes to housing and employment decisions.

Under the bill, a consumer reporting agency is prohibited from making a consumer report that contains information related to a consumer’s medical debt. If signed by Meyer, it would make Delaware the 10th state to have passed similar legislation. 

Separate from SB 156, lawmaker’s approved the state’s grant-in-aid bill, which would send about $100 million in taxpayer money to nonprofits, including $500,000 for “medical debt relief.”

At a press conference earlier this month, Meyer said there are 17,800 Delawareans who would be eligible for relief under these funds. He said those who are below 400% of the federal poverty line, and their debt exceeds 5%f their income.

Studying health care needs in Delaware

As Delaware tries to entice more medical professionals into Delaware, lawmakers passed a bill to examine exactly what kind of professionals the state needs, and where they’re needed most. 

Senate Bill 122, sponsored by State Sen. Russ Huxtable (D-Lewes), would allow Delaware health officials to access robust data surrounding the state’s health care workforce. With that data, the bill said the state could better inform its health care policy and to understand the “supply, demand, distribution, and use of health care workers.” 

The federal government recognizes multiple areas up and down the state as Health Professional Shortage Areas for dental, primary care and mental health services. 

“When we pass Senate Bill 122, we are not only preparing for the future of health care in Delaware, but we are also investing in a system that better serves patients, providers and the public,” Huxtable said at a committee meeting in May. 

Opioid settlement reform

A new law passed by the House and Senate would reform the approval process for grants stemming from Delaware’s opioid settlement fund, which is derived from $57 billion in nationwide legal settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors.

Introduced last month by House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown, House Bill 169, comes about one year after news broke last year over the mishandling of the fund. Delaware is expected to receive $250 million in opioid settlement dollars through 2038. 

The legislation would place approval and distribution powers over the opioid fund solely into the hands of the members of the Delaware Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission, decoupling it from a separate body under the authority of the lieutenant governor’s office.

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