Report Title:
Universal Health Coverage
Description:
Proposes a program of universal health coverage by restoring QUEST income eligibility to its original level of three hundred per cent of poverty, expanding benefits to include all allowable benefits, including dental, and eliminating overlapping publicly and privately funded coverages to increase the efficiency of the program and maximize eligibility for federal matching funds.
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
778 |
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TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO HEALTH.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that providing basic health care to every person living in this state should be a government priority. The provision of universal basic health care is a compelling social obligation, not only for reasons of conscience, but also because failure to provide needed care will result in vastly greater individual suffering, and social costs and burdens in the future.
The legislature further finds that despite the State's prepaid health care program and the many state and federal programs designed to provide health care to all Hawaii residents, there still remains in the State a "gap" group of uninsured individuals, many of which are children. Attempts to close the gap began in the 1980s with the enactment of the state health insurance program (SHIP). SHIP was intended to serve gap group families with incomes below three hundred per cent of poverty, or approximately $59,000 per year for a family of four. SHIP failed to provide medical coverage to its entire, intended group of beneficiaries.
In 1993, the State established the QUEST demonstration project, a project approved by the federal government as a medicaid waiver program. QUEST was intended to provide an efficient program of medical coverage by pooling the risks and premiums of both the group receiving coverage under existing state and federal programs, as well as the gap group of persons with incomes of up to three hundred per cent of poverty. Instead, QUEST has been administered since 1993 to reduce benefits below allowable levels, to cap enrollment, and to eliminate otherwise eligible beneficiaries. These changes have reduced QUEST eligibility to persons with incomes below one hundred per cent of poverty.
The purpose of this Act is to finally provide universal basic health care in this state by:
(1) Restoring QUEST eligibility to persons with incomes below three hundred percent of poverty;
(2) Expanding benefits under QUEST to include all allowable benefits, including dental benefits;
(3) Placing employer prepaid health care act mandated premiums for employees eligible for QUEST, in the QUEST purchasing pool along with matching federal funds, and limiting employer obligations to coverage for the employee, only, with premiums established by statute;
(4) Placing premiums for public employees and retirees eligible for QUEST benefits, and matching federal funds, in the QUEST purchasing pool;
(5) Removing medical coverage from the workers' compensation insurance plans and motor vehicle insurance plans of persons eligible for medical coverage under QUEST; and
(6) Housing QUEST in an administrative body other than the department of human services, selected to increase the efficiency of the program as well as encourage public acceptance of, and participation in, the program.
SECTION 2. The Hawaii Revised Statutes is amended to conform to the purpose of this Act.
SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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