STAND. COM. REP. NO.3221
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2002
RE: H.B. No. 1761
H.D. 1
S.D. 2
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2002
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1761, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INSURANCE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to regulate health insurance rates by adding a new article to the Insurance Code applicable to all types of health insurance offered by managed care plans.
Specifically, this measure requires all managed care plans to file their rates with the Insurance Commissioner for a waiting period of ninety days before the filing becomes effective. The filings are deemed to meet the rate regulation requirements unless the Commissioner disapproves of them within the waiting period.
Your Committee finds that rate regulation is necessary to minimize the over-pricing as well as the under-pricing of insurance products. In other words, rate oversight can result in lower premium rates for insurance consumers as well as protect the insurers' expectancy of earning a reasonable rate of return.
Your Committee has amended this measure as follows:
(1) By redefining "managed care plan" to include, rather than exclude, mutual benefit societies of employee organizations and voluntary employee beneficiary associations, and to narrow the exclusion for life and disability insurers to apply only to disability insurers;
(2) By specifying interim rates subsequent to the approval or disapproval of the filing, rather than having the Insurance Commissioner specify those rates; and
(3) By changing the effective date from July 1, 2050 to January 1, 2003.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1761, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1761, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
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____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair |
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