Delaware
Del. lawmakers look to expand Medicare supplement enrollment period for seniors
Delaware lawmakers look at creating a special enrollment period for those on a Medicare supplement policy looking to switch to another.
State Sen. Ray Seigfried (D-North Brandywine) introduces legislation that would make Delaware the 11th state to create a special open enrollment period for Medicare supplement policy holders 30 days before their birthday and 30 days after.
The new “birthday rule” would allow Medigap — Medicare supplement insurance sold by private insurance companies to help fill gaps in Original Medicare coverage — policyholders to switch to plans with equal or lesser benefits without the need to go through medical underwriting, a process where insurance companies examine an individual’s health risk, which Seigfried believes can be discriminatory.
“This rule can be beneficial for many Medigap beneficiaries, as it allows them to compare prices, coverage options, potentially find a more affordable plan,” Sen. Seigfried said.
It would also allow Medicare Advantage plan members, a plan that Delaware state retirees have argued requires stringent preauthorization requirements and provides insufficient benefits, to cancel their existing policy or enroll in Original Medicare with a supplemental plan following the underwriting process.
Representatives on behalf of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) — a trade association that lobbies on behalf of various insurance companies — and Highmark Delaware oppose the bill, arguing it would lead to higher premiums for seniors and decreased Medigap enrollment as seen in some other states with similar policies.
But Delaware Department of Insurance Senior Policy Advisor Chris Haas argues the statistics cited by insurance stakeholders show correlation without causation.
“We did expose the draft legislation to insurance industry stakeholders and note that many of the responses we received were concerningly misleading and inaccurate. While as of yesterday about 10 states do offer these plans, they all offer them a little bit differently in different environments,” Haas said.
She says while a small impact on rates is possible, because various Medigap carrier shave been declining to write policies at all after a person’s eligibility period, she argues the change in rate is akin to turning something exclusive into something that’s publicly offered.
“In recent years, consumers have reported increased barriers to accessing Medigap policies, whether adding coverage to Original Medicare, changing their Medigap plans, or trying to switch from Medicare Advantage to Medigap during federal enrollment periods when this is permitted. Medigap carriers refusing to write policies in these scenarios has caused consumer harm. It is an impossibility in other environments,” Haas explained. “Imagine if you turn 65, selected an auto insurance plan and then essentially could never change your coverage because carriers would not write to you. That is essentially what Delawareans have experienced.”
The legislation would also require issuers to notify those who are eligible and enrolled in their Medicare supplement policies of the dates of the open enrollment period at least 30 days before it begins and of any modification to the benefits provided by the policy under which the person is currently insured.
The bill cleared committee with virtually no discussion and now awaits consideration by the full Senate.
School board elections are one of the highest-leverage, lowest-participation decisions in Delaware. Turnout is low. Margins are small. In some cases, candidates run without a real contest. When voters do not engage, leadership is not selected. It is decided by default. When governance is decided by default, the system performs accordingly.
It’s clear that when residents fail to vote, it can have consequences — ones that most people recognize, but rarely connect to the ballot box. It shapes whether schools are focused on clear priorities or pulled in competing directions. It determines whether resources are invested in what improves student outcomes or spread thin. Those decisions show up in real ways: in the preparedness of students, the confidence of families, and the strength of Delaware’s workforce and economy.
In 2024, fewer than 5% of eligible voters cast ballots in Delaware school board elections, even as concern about outcomes, funding, and district leadership remained high across every sector of public life. The disconnect between what communities demand and how they participate is one of the most significant, and most solvable, barriers to progress in our state.
Data from the 2026 Delaware Opportunity Outlook reinforce this disconnect. A majority of Delawareans believe school board members have a direct influence on the quality of K–12 education, yet far fewer report understanding how improvement efforts are being carried out, or how decisions are made at the local level. In other words, people believe boards matter, but are not consistently using the one mechanism they have to influence who serves and how decisions are made.
What governing actually requires
A strong board member asks clear, outcome-focused questions and expects specific answers. They connect decisions to priorities, work through tradeoffs with colleagues, and ensure decisions are understood before the board moves forward. They listen for whether information reflects progress or activity, and press for clarity when it does not.
These are not intuitive responsibilities. They require preparation. School board governance is often treated as something individuals can step into without training, but these are complex roles that involve setting priorities, interpreting data, making tradeoffs, and ensuring decisions lead to results over time.
The Delaware Opportunity Outlook suggests that this is not how the role is widely understood. While Delawareans recognize that school boards influence the quality of education, far fewer identify training and professional preparation as essential.
That gap has direct consequences. As the state advances new priorities, the effectiveness of those efforts will depend on whether local board members are prepared to implement them, monitor progress, and make results visible.
Delaware’s moment
Delaware has established a clear direction for public education: defined priorities, a statewide literacy commitment, and a funding reform that will place significant new responsibilities on local boards. Plans set direction. Boards determine whether those plans turn into results.
What happens next will not be determined by those plans alone. It will be determined by how effectively school boards translate those priorities into decisions, how consistently they track progress, and whether they make results visible to the public.
Candidate evaluation
Evaluating a candidate is straightforward: Can they name a small number of district priorities and explain why those matter? Can they describe what data they would review regularly and how they would use it? Can they explain how resources should align to outcomes and what they would do if results do not improve? Candidates who can answer those questions demonstrate an understanding of the role. Those who cannot speak to governance beyond the issues that brought them to the race may find the role more demanding than they anticipated.
Make your voice heard
Voting in a school board election is one of the few places where individual participation has a direct and immediate impact on how the system performs. School board elections are decided by small numbers of voters. Your decision to engage, or not, determines who governs. Choosing not to participate is not neutrality. It is a choice, and it carries the same weight as the vote itself.
Today, a decision will be made about who governs Delaware’s schools. You can be part of that decision, or it will be made without you. Either way, the results will show up in classrooms, in communities, and in the long-term strength of this state.
Find out who is running. Evaluate them on the work the role requires, not only on the positions they hold. Vote, and encourage others to do the same.
For more details about voting in today’s elections, visit First State Educate’s 2026 School Board Elections page.
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Monday, May 11, 2026 10:57AM
TRAINER BOROUGH, Pa. (WPVI) — A person has died after being hit by a vehicle in Delaware County.
It happened around 2:45 a.m. on Monday in the 4300 block of West 9th Street in Trainer Borough.
Police and fire crews were called to the Parkview Mobile Home community for reports of a pedestrian hit by a car.
Officials say the victim went into cardiac arrest immediately after the crash.
The investigation into the crash is ongoing.
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LAUREL, Del. — Delaware State Police are investigating a shooting in Laurel that left a 19-year-old man injured Friday afternoon and resulted in firearm charges against a Georgetown man, authorities said.
Troopers responded around 3:20 p.m. Friday to TidalHealth Nanticoke after the victim arrived at the hospital in a personal vehicle with non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to police. Investigators said the man had been shot in front of a residence on Portsville Road near Randall Street in Laurel.
Police said the victim was transported to the hospital in a blue Mazda 3 driven by 20-year-old Alexison Amisial of Georgetown. Troopers later located the vehicle and Amisial at First Stop Gas Station, where investigators said he was found carrying an untraceable firearm concealed in his waistband.
Amisial was taken into custody without incident and charged with carrying a concealed deadly weapon and possession of an untraceable firearm, both felonies, police said. He was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court 3 and released on a $3,500 unsecured bond.
The Delaware State Police Troop 4 Criminal Investigations Unit continues to investigate the shooting. Authorities are asking anyone with information to contact Detective R. Mitchell at 302-752-3794 or Delaware Crime Stoppers at 800-847-3333.
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