Appropriates funds for capital improvements of the Molokai General Hospital. Provides that funds shall be released as the office of Hawaiian affairs provides funding at $1 for every $2 of the appropriation.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Molokai General Hospital of the Queen's Health Systems faces a continuing challenge of generating revenues sufficient to support its capital improvements and to meet the health care needs of the population it serves, a large percentage of whom are native Hawaiians. In calendar year 2005, there were twenty-three thousand patient visits to the Molokai General Hospital. Fifty-two per cent of those visits were from either native Hawaiian or part Hawaiian patients. In 2005, the Women's Health Center reported that seventy-five per cent of those receiving treatment in the midwifery program were Hawaiian and sixty-five per cent of those receiving family planning program services were Hawaiian.

The purpose of this Act is to assist the Molokai General Hospital in funding its capital improvements in order to meet the medical needs of Molokai residents, including native Hawaiians, by appropriating $1,600,000 in general revenues for fiscal year 2006-2007. General revenues shall only be made available to the extent that the office of Hawaiian affairs provides funding at the rate of $1 for every $2 of general revenues, up to a maximum annual expenditure of $500,000, during the fiscal biennium beginning July 1, 2006.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $1,600,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2006-2007, to be used for capital improvements to the Molokai General Hospital of the Queen's Health Systems; provided that funds shall be made available under this Act only if the office of Hawaiian affairs provides funding at a rate of $1 for every $2 of general revenues available.

SECTION 3. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2006.