STAND. COM. REP. NO. 105

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 385

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 385 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CANCER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health for the breast and cervical cancer control program.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Planned Parenthood of Hawaii.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that after Congress passed the Breast and Cervical Cancer Mortality Act in 1990, the State established the breast and cervical cancer treatment program, administered by the Department of Human Services Med-QUEST Division.  The Department of Health's breast and cervical cancer control program is the safety net for the most vulnerable women in the State.  Eligible women for the program face numerous barriers in their efforts to receive proper care, including socioeconomic status, language, literacy, and affordability of adequate health insurance.

     Your Committee further finds that since 1997, the Department of Health's breast and cervical cancer control program has provided critical screening and early detection services to more than 9,500 women and diagnosed 263 invasive breast cancers and 148 cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.  While progress is being made, breast and cervical cancers continue to take the lives of nearly 200 women in the State each year.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 385 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair