STAND. COM. REP. NO.  187-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 2369

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2369 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING EMERGENCY APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE STATE TO COMPLY WITH THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to cover costs associated with departmental efforts to continue State compliance with the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, given the cessation of operations of the Hawaii Health Connector on December 4, 2015.

Specifically, this measure appropriates $1,651,510 to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and $3,790,929 to the Department of Human Services to support the transfer of certain Hawaii Health Connector functions, including the ongoing maintenance and operations of the State's Medicaid eligibility and enrollment system, to the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and Department of Human Services.

Pursuant to requirements set forth in Article VII, Section 9, of the Hawaii State Constitution, the Governor, in Governor's Message No. 6 to the Legislature, requested immediate consideration and passage of this bill by the Legislature.

The Department of Human Services, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, and ILWU Local 142 testified in support of this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2369 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Human Services.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

____________________________

MARK M. NAKASHIMA, Chair