STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2779
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 2507
S.D. 2
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2006
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2507, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to expand enrollment in the State's QUEST program.
Specifically, this bill:
(1) Requires the Department of Human Services to submit a request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to amend the state waiver to allow Hawaii to remove its QUEST enrollment cap;
(2) Prohibits the Department of Human Services from imposing any cap on enrollment in its QUEST program and requires it to enroll all otherwise eligible individuals;
(3) Requires the Department of Human Services to adopt rules to remove the cap; and
(4) Appropriates an unspecified amount to cover the increase in enrollment.
Your Committee believes that removing the cap on enrollment will help to provide health coverage to a large number of otherwise eligible individuals in the State.
Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by clarifying that the Department of Human Services shall remove the cap on enrollment only after securing the necessary amendment to its state waiver.
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 is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2507, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2507, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
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____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair |
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