Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 131 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to request the Auditor to assess the social and financial impacts of mandating group health insurance coverage for infertility diagnosis and treatment.

Specifically, this Concurrent Resolution requests the Auditor to review the proposal set forth in S.B. No. 157, S.D. 1, which proposes to require health insurance policies, for groups of more than fifty persons, that provide pregnancy-related benefits to include coverage for medically-necessary expenses of fertility diagnosis and treatment, including medication, surgery, in vitro fertilization, embryo transfer, artificial insemination, gamete intra fallopian transfer, zygote intra fallopian transfer, and intracytoplasmic sperm injection, with a limit of four completed egg retrievals per lifetime of the covered person.

Sixteen years ago, Hawaii enacted a law requiring health insurance policies to include coverage for a one-time-only in vitro fertilization procedure, subject to several prerequisites and limitations. Since that time, there have been numerous advances in the field of assisted reproductive technology, including the development of drugs and procedures that provide less costly, less invasive, or more appropriate alternatives to the treatment of infertility.

Your Committee finds that the proposal in S.B. No. 157, S.D. 1, would facilitate the treatment of infertility beyond the limited procedure presently available and be consistent with current medical knowledge and practice.

Section 23-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires the Auditor to analyze the social and financial impacts of proposed mandatory health insurance coverage for specific health services or diseases, before any legislative measure that mandates such coverage can be considered. Your Committee finds that this Concurrent Resolution complies with the requirements of section 23-51 by requesting the Auditor's analysis of the mandatory coverage proposed in S.B. No. 157, S.D. 1.

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 concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 131 and recommends its adoption.