Last week the Rhode Island Senate announced a 9-bill package aimed at targeting three specific areas of local healthcare reform, expanding on an effort from last session where a 25-bill package was put forth with similar goals.

The nine bills focus on addressing the critical shortage of primary care doctors — which has resulted in wait times of anywhere from 12-18 months (you read that correctly) for new patients to secure a spot with a primary care physician — expanding access and the affordability of medication and influenza vaccines, and on safeguarding people from suffering negative consequences of incurring medical debt.

Two of East Providence’s elected leaders, including the Senate’s newly-appointed Majority Leader, Val Lawson, were the primary sponsors of two of those bills. The bills within the package still need to be voted upon by the full Senate and would then require approval in the House of Representatives as well.

The Post interviewed Lawson and Senator Robert Britto to discuss their contributions to the package, and to their general sense of the state of healthcare in Rhode Island as a whole.

“We all should be entitled to quality healthcare and no one should have to worry about the cost,” Lawson said. “But I think we’re in a position now where we have major issues that we need to address and fix so people can get access, find a primary care doctor, have the ability to not be in debt to it, help people out in regards to prescription pricing, make it easier to get a vaccination, more accessible to more people, make sure people aren’t denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. All of these things matter to people.”

Expanding access to vaccinations
Sen. Robert Britto, for his part, submitted a bill (2025-S 166) that would enable pharmacists in the state to administer influenza vaccinations to all eligible patients, regardless of their age.

The bill modifies existing law that specified pharmacies may provide vaccines to people over the age of 18, striking any mention of an age range from that existing language, effectively opening up the ability for pharmacists to provide vaccinations to anybody.

“All I want to do is make it essentially go across the board,” Britto said. “Why would we do it for this age group or that age group, and not that one?”

Britto confirmed that the bill only pertains to the administration of influenza vaccines, which would include the common flu and COVID-19.
Asked if the timing of the bill had anything to do with the growing anti-vaccine rhetoric occurring throughout the nation — which has become especially cogent during the U.S. Senate’s deliberation over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy to become the health and human services Secretary — Britto said that it was just a matter of “coincidental timing.”

Britto added that he would be re-submitting a bill he brought forth last year (2024-S 2720) to provide relief to cancer patients and those with debilitating illnesses that face high deductibles for their treatments and medications. That bill passed the Senate unanimously but never made it to the House for a vote.

Protecting Medicare enrollees
Sen. Lawson’s bill (2025-S 167), is a holdover from a previous session, but one that she said continues to have importance today. It would prevent people who have reached Medicare age from being subject to fees or from being denied coverage while trying to switch between, or add additional, supplemental coverage plans.

“It’s to eliminate medical underwriting so that people have free access to move, and they can’t be denied by a carrier,” Lawson said when asked about the bill.

She said that under the current law, problems arise when people receiving Medicare enroll in so-called “Medigap” coverage plans, or try to switch between those plans when they learn that their existing supplemental coverage doesn’t provide them with the coverage they need, leading to fees or denials for coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

“A lot of times when people made this selection they didn’t realize they were putting themselves at risk like that,” Lawson said.

The bill would enable eligible Medicare recipients to switch between supplemental insurance plans without question or fees during a month-long open enrollment period.

Protections from debt and prescription gouging
Also included within the 9-bill package were two bills to prevent people from suffering additional consequences due to incurred medical debt.

Sponsored by Sen. John P. Burke (D - District 9, West Warwick), and co-sponsored by Lawson, 2025-S 172 would cap the allowable interest rate on new medical debt between 1.5% and 4%.

Combined with Sen. Jacob E. Bissaillon’s (D-District 1, Providence) bill, 2025-S 169, which would prohibit credit bureaus from reporting a person’s medical debt, and prevent a lien from being put on somebody’s home due to an incurring of medical debt, Sen. Lawson said that people will be better protected from the life-altering consequences that can happen in the aftermath of an unexpected medical incident that wasn’t covered or only partially covered by insurance.

“Everybody should have access to quality healthcare and they shouldn’t have to worry about the financial aspect of it,” she said. “Or it being something to paralyze you for the rest of your life…It just ruins peoples lives.”

Another bill that intends to address the expensive cost of medication is Sen. Lori Urso’s (D - District 8, Pawtucket) 2025-S 165, which would prohibit pharmacy benefit managers, or “PBMs”, from utilizing “spread pricing” in their cost structures related to health care plans. Spread pricing is a practice where PBMs charge health plans and payers more for a prescription drug than what they reimburse to the pharmacy, and then keep the difference, the “spread.”

Addressing the doctor shortage
One bill, sponsored by Sen. Brian J. Thompson (D - District 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland), seeks to authorize Medicaid funding for graduate medical education programs that train new health professionals in the areas including (but not limited to) trauma care, primary care, maternal health, mental health, and substance abuse treatment.

Lawson explained that this bill could potentially increase the pool of people who could receive funding through Medicaid reimbursement, such as those undergoing medical training in graduate programs for various medical fields. However, it would be up to the secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to determine exactly how that mechanism would function.

Along the same lines, Sen. Peter A. Appollonio Jr.’s (D - District 29, Warwick) bill would allow the Rhode Island Department of Health to review and act upon any medical licenses that have not yet been considered by the relevant licensing board within 60 days of their submission, in the hopes to streamline the approval of new nurse practitioners and physicians.

Although unrelated to the bills, Lawson said that she was optimistic for the results of a commission that is looking into the feasibility of creating a new medical school in Rhode Island.

She also stressed during her interview that the Senate is continuing to prioritize an effort that began last year to increase reimbursement rates from major insurers to be more in line with rates seen in neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut. As a result of having a lower reimbursement rate from insurers, the argument is that doctors can make significantly more money in their practice outside of Rhode Island.

While that effort passed through the Senate, it failed to gain traction in the House last session.

“Primary care physicians…So many people tell you the same thing. They can’t find them. This is a long-term problem, and we need long-term fixes,” Lawson said. “The reimbursement rate here is problematic to keeping Rhode Island physicians or having them come here. That’s why that has to be addressed. They can go to school, whether it’s eventually down at URI, or they’re already in place at Brown, but if they don’t stay, it doesn’t help us.”