Delaware Senate Bill 163 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 18-3)
Status: Introduced on June 20 2019 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2019-06-20 - Introduced and Assigned to Elections, Govt. & Community Affairs Committee in Senate
Pending: Senate Elections, Government & Community Affairs Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHSS) was established in 1970 by legislative enactment with a broad and crucial mandate: to supervise the health, wellbeing, and life of Delaware citizens. In the decades since, the population of Delaware has increased, and the needs of Delaware citizens have required increasingly complex and costly medical interventions, particularly for those most vulnerable among us, such as the elderly and those suffering from addiction. To serve this broad array of individual needs, DHSS has adapted to provide personalized and individualized services to citizens at a level of direct care. Additionally, the broad language of DHSS authorizing statute has required it to maintain focus on other policy initiatives, such as promoting public health and administering healthcare through Medicaid while maintaining compliance with state and Federal laws and regulations, which themselves have grown in complexity. Given the advancements in both individualized care and the policy landscape, the inevitable conclusion is that DHSS dual roles must be separated into two separate Departments with Cabinet-level representation. Doing so will ensure that Delawareans receive high-quality care on an individualized basis, and will recommit a separate agency to its important policy objectives, such as maximizing efficiency and reducing the cost associated with waste that arises when an agencys functions become too manifold for the agency to be efficient and effective.

An Act Providing For A Strategic Review Of The Department Of Health And Social Services And Presentation Of Recommendations Regarding A Comprehensive Restructuring Thereof To The Joint Finance Committee.

Sen. Nicole Poore [D]	Rep. Valerie Longhurst [D]	Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]	Sen. Stephanie Hansen [D]
Sen. David McBride [D]	Sen. Harris McDowell [D]	Sen. Charles Paradee [D]	Sen. Laura Sturgeon [D]
Sen. Jack Walsh [D]	Sen. Catherine Cloutier [R]	Sen. Anthony Delcollo [R]	Rep. Andria Bennett [D]
Rep. Earl Jaques [D]	Rep. Kendra Johnson [D]	Rep. Quinton Johnson [D]	Rep. Sean Lynn [D]
Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown [D]	Rep. John Mitchell [D]	Rep. Michael Smith [R]	Rep. Peter Schwartzkopf [D]
Rep. Kimberly Williams [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2019-06-20		Introduced and Assigned to Elections, Govt. & Community Affairs Committee in Senate

Type	Source
Summary	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=47754
Text	https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=47754&legislationTypeId=1&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SB163