Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 3020 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide programs and services for low-income individuals with developmental disabilities who are not Medicaid recipients.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Health, State Planning Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Arc in Hawaii, and three private individuals. The Department of Human Services submitted comments on this measure.

Your Committee finds that as a result of the lack of services in the community, families are left to provide twenty-four hour care for their developmentally disabled family member. For parents who are no longer able to provide care, government sponsored programs and services help keep their adult child independent in their own homes and communities.

Your Committee further finds that without services, people with mental retardation and developmental disabilities who do not qualify for Medicare are at risk of institutionalization. They are also at risk of regression, losing the skills that they gained from educational programs and therapeutic services previously made available to them as children. This measure is needed to assist those residents who fall within this gap group.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this measure by making the expending agency the Department of Health.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3020, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3020, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.