Gov. John Carney signed a series of bills aimed at access to healthcare Thursday.
All three were championed by freshman State Sen. Marie Pinkney, who says all look to solve issues that came straight from community members.
One, Senate Bill 105, allows pharmacists to administer and provide all types of birth control without a prescription from a doctor.
“In a time where we are seeing other states diminish a woman’s right to choose what to do with her body, I’m very excited that Delaware has taken the stance to open up access for others.”
Pinkney says this bill follows at least 11 other states and the District of Columbia in adopting this practice, making access to birth control easier.
Another bill signed opens up healthcare access and lowers costs by requiring insurance carriers make insulin pumps available at no cost for those with diabetes.
Pinkney says this bill was personal to her, as it came from from a friend in Sussex county who was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes later in life.
"If you can remember your 20's you were probably broke during that time and she was, she was working at a job where her insurance coverage was not great."
Pinkney says her friend already struggled just learning how to manange her diabetes, let alone figuring out how to pay for it; and if her insurance would have covered the cost of an insulin pump, that would have made her life so much easier after her diagnosis.
Insulin pumps can cost upwards of $6,000 out of pocket without the help of insurance.
And Pinkney’s other bill allows parents of a newborn to surrender the infant to any police station in the state, save for the Delaware State Police, without fear of prosecution.
Delaware was just one of 16 other states that only allow infants to be surrendered at hospitals — but this bill does not extend such safe haven laws to fire departments, a practice in place in 25 other states.
Roman Battaglia is a corps member withReport for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
