STAND. COM. REP. NO. 34

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 107

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 107 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ELDERLY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to create the Hawaii kupuna trust fund, which comprises public and private funding for meeting the outstanding and future needs of the elderly and dependent adult population.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging, the County of Hawaii Office on Aging, the Community Alliance for Mental Health, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that Americans with multiple, chronic health conditions and increased rates of disability in old age are living longer now than in the past.  Furthermore, the aging of the population in Hawaii guarantees that there will be a greater need for long term care in the future.  Between 2007 and 2030, the population aged eighty-five and older, which has the greatest need for long term care, will increase by almost two-thirds.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the definition of "dependent adult", adding a definition for "vulnerable adult", and replacing references to "dependent adult" with "vulnerable adult" for consistency with existing statutes; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 107, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 107, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services,

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair