Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1467 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require mandatory coverage for annual prostate cancer screening for men age forty and older by insurers, mutual benefit societies, and health maintenance organizations.

The National Prostate Cancer Coalition and one individual submitted testimony in support of this measure. Hawaii Association of Health Plans and Kaiser Permanente submitted testimony in opposition. Hawaii Medical Service Association and the American Cancer Society submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer, other than skin cancer, among men in the United States. In Hawaii, approximately seven hundred cases of invasive prostate cancer are diagnosed each year and another one hundred men die from the disease annually. Screening and early treatment can reduce this mortality rate.

There is apparently a lack of agreement among several credible health care organizations and governmental agencies about prostate screening guidelines. Your Committee notes that the importance of this measure is screening, early detection, and treatment for prostate cancer, and not hard and fast recognition of any particular guideline.

Before any legislative measure can mandate health insurance coverage for specific health services, specific diseases, or certain providers of health care services as part of individual group health insurance policies, the Auditor must prepare and submit a report assessing the social and financial effects of the proposed mandated coverage to the Legislature. Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 29 requests the Auditor to use this bill as the basis for its mandatory assessment.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the specific reference to the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and referring generally to guidelines of other health care organizations including, but not limited to, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the American Cancer Society, the Centers for Disease Control, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1467, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1467, S.D. 1, and be recommitted to the Committee on Health, for further consideration.