Report Title:

Routine Infant Circumcision; Cost-Benefit Analysis

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, it is generally accepted that circumcision has its roots in religious practices; and

WHEREAS, it is accepted that adult circumcision as a surgical procedure is used to treat physical abnormalities of a medical nature; and

WHEREAS, the United States is the only country in which infant circumcision is performed as a routine procedure for non-religious reasons, accounting for eighty per cent of the world's males; and

WHEREAS, there is a sharp division among medical and other authorities over the usefulness or necessity of infant circumcision as a routine procedure for purpose of preventive medicine; and

WHEREAS, the performance of infant circumcision as a routine procedure has cost implications as well as health risks; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, the Senate concurring, that the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services are requested to collaborate with major health insurance plans in the State to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of routine infant circumcision, including whether infant circumcision should be treated as an elective surgical procedure and if cost savings can be realized by so designating; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services are requested to report its findings and recommendations, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Governor and to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the Regular Session of 2002; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Directors of Health and Human Services who are, in turn, requested to distribute copies to major health insurance plans in the State.