HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	285
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

Urging Congress to approve the United states national health care act.

     WHEREAS, every person in the State of Hawaii deserves to have high quality and affordable health care; and

     WHEREAS, the cost of health care in Hawaii and the nation is escalating exponentially; and

     WHEREAS, health insurance premium costs and prescription drug costs are rising rapidly; and

     WHEREAS, today, more than one hundred thousand Hawaii residents are without any health care insurance coverage, and more than twelve thousand of the uninsured are children; and

     WHEREAS, many other Hawaii residents are under-insured, or unable to use their insurance properly or even at all, because of increasingly expensive deductibles and out-of-pocket co‑payments for outpatient visits, diagnostic tests, and prescription drugs, among other factors; and

     WHEREAS, there is a growing crisis in health care across the United States of America, manifested in rising health care costs, increased premiums, out-of-pocket spending, decreased international business competitiveness, and massive layoffs; and

     WHEREAS, medical bills contribute to half of all bankruptcies, and three-quarters of those who have filed for bankruptcy had health insurance at the on-set of the illness or injury; and

     WHEREAS, the increasing expense of Medicaid and the rising costs of insuring state employees and teachers can best be met not by limiting benefits, but by expanding them under a national, publicly-funded health insurance program; and

     WHEREAS, the United States Representatives John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich have introduced H.R. 676, the United States National Health Care Act, in the United States House of Representatives for the 111th Congress, and this Act would provide a universal, comprehensive, single payer system of high quality national health insurance; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2009, the Senate concurring, that this Legislature respectfully urges the United States Congress to enact H.R. 676, the United States National Health Care Act; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

United States National Health Care Act