STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1382_______

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: S.B. No. 1294
                                     S.D. 1
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was
referred S.B. No. 1294, S.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES HEALTH
     FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to require that eligible
employee-beneficiaries of the Public Employees' Health Fund
(Fund) and their spouses enroll in the federal Medicare Part B
medical insurance plan, with exceptions to the requirement to be
determined by the Board of Trustees.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

     (1)  Requiring the state through the Department of Budget
          and Finance and the several counties through their
          respective departments of finance to pay the Fund a
          monthly contribution of $43.80 for voluntary medical
          insurance coverage for each employee-beneficiary;

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Labor and Industrial
          Relations to study chapter 87, Hawaii Revised Statutes,
          and recommend proposed legislation to increase the
          efficiency and promote cost savings in the
          adminstration of the Public Employees Health Fund and
          to report its findings and recommendations to the
          Legislature no later than January 10, 2000; and

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1382_______
                                 Page 2

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amenmdents for style
          and clarity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 1294, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No.
1294, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on
Finance.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Labor and Public
                                   Employment,



                                   ______________________________
                                   TERRY NUI YOSHINAGA, Chair