STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2584

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2687

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2687 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CANCER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a colorectal cancer screening and awareness program within the Department of Health.

     This measure also appropriates $100,000 in general funds to establish the colorectal cancer screening and awareness program.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, The Queen's Health Systems, and three individuals.

     Your Committee finds that colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, killing nearly sixty thousand people each year.  Regular colorectal cancer screening in those over the age of fifty can reduce these deaths by more than forty percent, which could save one hundred lives in Hawaii annually.  Your Committee also finds that Hawaii's colorectal cancer screening rate is in the bottom half of all states and lower than the national average.  The establishment of a colorectal cancer screening and awareness program that educates the public about the risks associated with colorectal cancer and the benefits of colorectal cancer screening can help reduce the State's colorectal cancer mortality rate, thus improving the overall well-being of the State.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Changing the appropriation from $100,000 to an unspecified amount; and

(2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate 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. 2687, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2687, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair