Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 3202 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to expand coverage under Medicaid and QUEST to include comprehensive dental coverage for eligible persons twenty-one years of age or older and to appropriate funds to provide the additional coverage.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Department of Human Services, The Bay Clinic Community Health Centers, Blueprint for Change, the Hawaii Dental Association, the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, the Hawaii Long Term Care Association, the Hawaii Primary Care Association, the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association, Mental Health Association in Hawaii (MHAH), and the Waipahu Aloha Clubhouse.

Your Committees find that oral health is vital to a person's overall wellbeing and that poor dental hygiene can result in other health problems. Your Committees further find that the Department of Human Services has submitted executive supplemental budget requests in HMS 230 and HMS 245 to combine federal and state funds to restore the dental benefit that existed for adults in the Medicaid program prior to 1996.

Your Committees intend the dental benefits to allow comprehensive preventive care to include at least one exam, cleaning, and set of x-rays each year, plus dentures and any necessary fillings and crowns.

Your Committees have amended this measure by adding a definition of "comprehensive coverage" and by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3202, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3202, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.