STAND. COM. REP. NO. 49

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 309

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 309 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEARING AIDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require health insurance policies and contracts issued after December 31, 2013, to provide coverage for the cost of hearing aids in their base plans.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Service Association, ILWU Local 142, and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

     Your Committees find that according to the National Institutes of Health, an estimated one-third of Americans between the ages of sixty-five and seventy-five and around one-half of those older than seventy-five have some degree of hearing loss.  In addition, a 2005 study by the Better Hearing Institute estimated that untreated hearing loss resulted in a loss of income per household of up to $12,000 per year.  Your Committees further find that according to the Lions Club, the cost of a custom low- to mid-level analog or digital hearing aid begins around $2,000 or less, and around $3,000 and higher for a high-end hearing aid.  Medicare and most private insurance companies do not cover the cost of hearing aids through their base health care coverage.  As a result, it is not unusual for people with hearing loss to choose not to purchase hearing aids because these expensive devices are not covered by insurance.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 309, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 309, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair