STAND. COM. REP. NO. 471-04
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2004
RE: H.B. No. 2015
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2004
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committees on Human Services and Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 2015 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LONG-TERM CARE,"
beg leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to address rising long-term care costs by keeping those individuals who require such care out of costly nursing homes and off Medicaid. This bill supports the efforts of family caregivers by:
(1) Authorizing the Departments of Health (DOH) and Human Services (DHS) to reimburse family caregivers who provide free and continuous day-to-day care in the home to a relative who is functionally dependent or suffering from dementia;
(2) Establishing the eligibility requirements, allowable reimbursement expenses, and the means to develop a sliding scale for reimbursement; and
(3) Appropriating an unspecified sum for reimbursement purposes.
The Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs, ILWU Local 142, and four individuals testified in support of this measure. Your Committees also received a petition signed by 44 individuals in support of this bill. DOH and DHS opposed this bill.
Your Committees have amended this bill by:
(1) Inserting $1 appropriations for the purpose of continued discussion; and
(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments to correct stylistic errors.
As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2015, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2015, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Housing and Health,
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____________________________ DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair |
____________________________ MICHAEL PUAMAMO KAHIKINA, Chair |
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