Delaware healthcare spending continues to outpace the benchmark goals the state sets for its providers, according to the most recent report from the Health and Social Services Department.
The state reports that Delawareans’s spending hit $11.6 billion in 2024, reflecting an 8.7% increase over 2023. The state-set benchmark for 2024 was 3%.
State Senator Ray Seigfried (D-Arden) called the trend, “totally unacceptable.”
He added the increase is reflective of a rise in hospital prices over the last25 years,that significantly outpace worker earnings.
“That trickles down to the average person in terms of co-pays, premiums, and they're paying way, far too much.”
A subcommittee of Delaware’s Economic and Financial Advisory Council agreed to increase its benchmark for healthcare spending growth from 4.2% to 4.9% for 2027.
But healthcare spending has outpaced bench marks since 2021.Thespending growth targets were initiated in 2018.
Karen Peterson, a retiree representative for the State Employee Health Benefits Committee, has noticed the repeated miss.
“I've kind of come to think of (the benchmark) as aspirational and not realistic goals,” she said.
The rise in spending, from approximately $8 billion to $11.6 billion over five years reflects a rise in pricing, she said. It forced her group, the SEBC, to make the tough choice of raising the co-pay on GLP1s for weight loss understate health plans.
She does support a piece of legislation, Senate Bill 1, that stirred controversy when it was introduced earlier this year.
“Unless we do something really drastic...if you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting,” she said.
The bill supports extending primary care investment requirements in Delaware.
Over the course of three years, the legislation would also require hospitals to adopt a global budgeting model or be subject to a 250% cap of Medicare pricing.
Seigfried is a co-sponsor on the bill. He said SB 1’s goal is to push for preventative care, while also tackling affordability.
Hospital groups, like the Delaware Healthcare Association, argue that the Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board will bring unprecedented oversight to hospital spending and budgets. The board was put on hold during legal challenges over its powers. And the DHA argued that SB 1's introduction was premature, given the board was just signed back into law in February.
