STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2397

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 2000

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 2863
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Health and Human Services and
Transportation and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was
referred S.B. No. 2863 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADVANCE HEALTH-CARE
     DIRECTIVES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require that an
application form for a motor vehicle license or renewal contain a
question to designate whether the applicant has an advance
health-care directive.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this
measure from the Attorney General, Executive Office on Aging,
Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, Hawaii Coalition for
Affordable Long Term Care, Healthcare Association of Hawaii,
Hospice Hawaii, and Kokua Council.

     This measure provides that if an applicant designates on the
application for any motor vehicle license that the applicant has
an advance health-care directive, the license will bear the
designation "advance health-care directive", or a symbol or
abbreviation for it.

     According to the testimony on this measure, relatives or
friends accompanying a person to be admitted to a hospital often
do not know whether the person has an advance health care
directive or may be too distraught to discuss the subject.

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2397
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Recent surveys indicate that fewer than twelve per cent of adults
in Hawaii who have advance health care directives ever get them
entered into their hospital charts.  Therefore, an advance health
care directive designation on the driver's license would alert
the admitting staff to the existence of the directive and would
greatly increase the likelihood that the individual's wishes
regarding treatment would be respected.

     This measure applies the same requirements for persons
applying for registration at the Hawaii Criminal Justice Data
Center.  The identification certificate would bear the same
designation.

     The intent of this measure is to facilitate the
identification of persons who have executed an advance
health-care directive, which is especially useful in a medical
emergency involving that person particularly if the directive
authorizes the provision, withholding, or withdrawing of
artificial nutrition and hydrogenation when the person loses
decisional capacity.  

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting reference to specific medical treatment being
          imprinted on the identification certificate; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive changes to reflect
          clarity and preferred drafting style.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your
Committees on Health and Human Services and Transportation and
Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your
Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B.
No. 2863, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2863, S.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committees on Health and Human
                                   Services and Transportation
                                   and Intergovernmental Affairs,



____________________________       ______________________________
CAL KAWAMOTO, Chair                SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 
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