Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

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. 3202, S.D. 1, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to improve dental health by:

(2) Appropriating funds to provide the additional coverage.

The Department of Human Services, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, Hawaii Primary Care Association, Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Arc in Hawaii, Hawaii Dental Association, Kokua Council, Molokai Community Health Center, Waipahu Aloha Clubhouse, Blueprint for Change, Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, Molokai Ohana Health Care, Inc., and several concerned individuals supported this bill.

Your Committees find that poor dental health equals poor overall health. Dental assistance must be easily available and accessible to those people who are at the greatest risk of poor dental health. Therefore, your Committees have amended this bill by removing its original contents and replacing it with the provisions from House Bill No. 3259, H.D. 1, which, among other things, offers a broader scope of dental health assistance by appropriating funds to establish community-based dental health clinics operated by community health centers or other community-based organizations to provide a continuum of dental care to QUEST eligible adults and children, the aged, blind, and disabled population.

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. 3202, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3202, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.