STAND. COM. REP. NO. 17
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2001
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 293 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health to provide resources to non-profit, community based health care programs.
It was recognized by your Committees that not all persons in the State of Hawaii have access to needed primary health care and that the consequences of not receiving this primary care can result in higher costs borne by public and private insurers and all health care providers when trying to reverse neglected health problems. Moreover, your Committees realized that the State of Hawaii has subsidized the health care safety net for services they provide for the uninsured but that this funding has never been adequate to the need.
The Hawaii State Primary Care Association, Papa Ola Lokahi, and the Mental Health Association of Hawaii all testified in support of this measure. The Department of Health testified in support of the measure but suggested that language in the bill be changed so as not to compromise the priority funding established in the executive biennium budget. The Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center also testified in support of the measure suggesting amendments to include additional services for insurance coverage.
Your Committees, realizing that many health care providers provide a much broader scope of service, have adopted the recommendations of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center by making the following amendments:
(1) Inserting language that includes laboratory, radiology
and follow-up visits by a patient's primary care provider at sites outside the health center as covered costs; and
(2) Inserting language to reimburse federally qualified health centers for prescription pharmaceuticals dispensed to patients uninsured for prescription drugs with incomes at 200% of the poverty level or less.
Other, technical, nonsubstantive amendments have been made for the purposes of clarity and style.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 293, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 293, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees of Health and Human Services and Housing,
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____________________________ MICHAEL P. KAHIKINA, Chair |
____________________________ DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair |