STAND. COM. REP. NO. 42

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 41

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 41 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII PREPAID HEALTH CARE ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to immediately eliminate language allowing for the automatic repeal of Hawaii's Prepaid Health Care Act from the text of that Act and to eliminate potentially conflicting language regarding the effective date of the Prepaid Health Care Act's automatic repeal in order to safeguard the Prepaid Health Care Act more completely. 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations; University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, The William S. Richardson School of Law; Natural Cancer Wellness Foundation; Hawaii Medical Service Association; and AARP Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Medical Association, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, and two private citizens.

     Your Committee finds that the Prepaid Health Care Act provides benefits to the people of Hawaii that are superior to those provided by federal legislation on its own.  This measure ensures that those benefits are not superseded in the future by potentially lesser benefits provided under federal legislation.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 41 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Labor.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair