Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2764 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure and encourage the availability of care for trauma patients in the State by establishing a dedicated source of revenue to assist in the funding of such trauma care.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, and Healthcare Association of Hawaii. Your Committees received testimony recommending change to this measure from the Department of Health and Hawaii Pacific Health. The Department of Budget and Finance commented on the requirements needed for a special fund.

Your Committees find that a trauma system is a necessary public service and should be publicly supported. More than half of the trauma patients that are treated are under-insured or uninsured. Annual losses in the trauma center alone have reached over $6,000,000.

Your Committees further find that a reliable, dedicated, source of funding will help ensure the success of the trauma system. Thus, adding and dedicating $5 from every annual vehicle registration fee to the trauma system fund would be appropriate because it is a predictable amount that can be budgeted for every year, and a majority of patients that enter into the trauma care system do so as a result of motor vehicle related injuries.

Your Committees amended this measure by changing the name of the fund from "trauma care fund" to "trauma system fund," by clarifying the use of funds, and by appropriating $3,000,000 into the trauma system special fund.

Your Committees further amended this measure by deleting funding from surcharges on fines and other offenses, and adding a provision for funding from an additional annual $5 motor vehicle registration fee, specifically dedicated for deposit into the trauma system fund.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2764, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2764, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.