The last day for the General Assembly is Saturday, June 30th, so there are 10 working days left in the Delaware General Assembly. All session long, we have been keeping track of important and priority legislation for liberals and progressives in Delaware. We have also grouped them by subject category: 1) Voting Rights/ Elections; 2) Civil Rights/Discrimination; 3) Education; 4) Gun Safety and Control; 5) Taxes/ Budget; 6) Healthcare and Insurance; 7) Jobs, Economics and Consumer Protection; 8) Drug Control; 9) Criminal Justice; 10) Government Reform and 11) Environment.
Yesterday, the General Assembly acted on a bill in the Healthcare and Insurance category, so let’s focus on that today.
The House passed SB139 39-2, with Republicans Rich Collins and Charles Postles the only two “humans” voting no. The bill now goes to the Governor. Under the new law, insurance plans in the state will be required to cover fertility care services, as 15 other states, including New Jersey and Maryland, have already done. The fertility care services would include in vitro fertilization (“IVF”) procedures for persons, who along with their partner, suffer from a disease or condition that results in the inability to procreate or to carry a pregnancy to viability. This Act also requires that health insurance offered in this State provide coverage for fertility preservation for individuals diagnosed with cancer and other diseases, when medically necessary treatment could adversely affect their fertility.
The General Assembly has made good progress on all the legislative priorities in the Heathcare and Insurance field, as you can see by all the green. The three remaining priority bills will also likely get votes, especially the Primary Care and Birth Control bills, as they are already in the process of moving through committees and being passed by one chamber. But call your Representative and Senator to make sure they know the importance of these bills.
SB199 was replaced by SB227. Same bill, just different name. SB227 is on the ready list in Senate.
I got a email from Change.org stating SB227 has an item “right to keep your primary doctor”. No anything about that?