Rhode Island’s health care system is sick. The State Senate has a 25-bill prescription.

The focus of the legislation is no surprise; lawmakers, health care officials and community advocates have decried crippling workforce shortages that leave patients waiting for hours in hospital emergency rooms or struggling to find doctors, therapists and dentists for routine checkups and procedures. Meanwhile, the state’s health care workforce continues to flounder after a mass exodus during the pandemic, worsened by uncompetitive pay compared with neighboring states.