STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2198

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2346

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2346 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide ongoing financial support to healthy aging programs and services, including a public education and awareness campaign on long-term care to be conducted by the Executive Office on Aging.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging; Department of Community Services, City and County of Honolulu; Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs; Hawaii Government Employees Association; AARP Hawaii; American Council of Life Insurers; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Hawaii Primary Care Association; Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans; International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142 Hawaii; Project Dana; and twenty-nine individuals.

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii's aging population is increasing at a rapid rate, and programs and services are needed to maintain the health and welfare of Hawaii's seniors and their caregivers.  By 2035, Hawaii's population of residents age sixty and older is projected to be thirty percent of the total population.  Your Committee further finds that the most successful programs for aging in place recognize and build upon integrated health and social services.  Finally, your Committee recognizes the importance of educating Hawaii's residents with information about long-term care, including the different types of long-term care and long-term care providers, the statistical risk of requiring long-term care, and the associated costs, so that residents are motivated to provide for their own or family members' long-term care needs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriation amount for the aging and disability resource center from $1,900,000 to $427,937 to reflect the balance needed for continued operations and the management information systems for the statewide aging and disability resource center system; 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. 2346, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2346, 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