Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 761, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to amend the definition of "serious mental illness" to include obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative disorder, delusional disorder, and major depression.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Department of Health, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, the National Association of Social Workers, the Hawaii Psychological Association, the Queen's Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill-Oahu, the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill-Hawaii, the Mental Health Association in Hawaii, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the Hawaii Medical Association, and two individuals.

Your Committee finds that pursuant to Act 121, Session Laws of Hawaii 1999, certain medical disorders, including obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative disorder, delusional disorder, and major depression, were removed from the definition of "serious mental illness" under Chapter 431M, Hawaii Revised Statutes. The deletion of these conditions from the definition of "serious mental illness" runs counter to the national trend in mental health care which is to expand mandated mental health treatment benefits through parity with other physical illnesses. This trend is based largely upon the assumption that it is discriminatory to restrict or offer less access to health care in the area of mental health care relative to other areas of health care. Your Committee believes that the inclusion of obsessive compulsive disorder, dissociative disorder, delusional disorder, and major depression is necessary to promote parity in insurance coverage in the treatment of mental illnesses in the same manner as physical illnesses. Furthermore, this expansion of coverage will act to improve the health of the people of Hawaii, while helping to reduce the overall costs of care over the long term.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for purposes of consistency and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 761, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 761, S.D. 2.