STAND. COM. REP. NO. 596

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 665

       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 Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 665 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to address the shortage of primary care physicians in the State.

More specifically, this measure appropriates funds to the Hawaii Health Corps and diversity and primary care workforce expansion programs at the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School Of Medicine.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Association.

     Your Committee finds that there is a shortage of primary care physicians in the State, especially in its rural areas.  Your Committee finds that expanding the infrastructure and capacity of the current teaching hospitals will enable those facilities to train more medical residents and students who will be more likely to remain in Hawaii to practice medicine after their training is finished.  Accordingly, your Committee finds that increasing the number of primary care physicians will improve access to medical care and preventative treatment for the residents of the State and help control health care costs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriations to unspecified amounts; and

(2)  Changing the effective date from July 1, 2013, to July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion on the measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 665, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 665, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair