STAND. COM. REP. NO. 705

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 749

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 749 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE COLORECTAL CANCER SCREENING AND AWARENESS PILOT PROGRAM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to develop and support a program for early detection of colorectal cancer. 

     More specifically this measure:

     (1)  Establishes a two-year Hawaii colorectal cancer screening and awareness pilot program, using the Hawaii comprehensive breast and cervical cancer control program as a model; and

     (2)  Appropriates moneys for the pilot program.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and The Queen's Health Systems.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States.  Your Committee believes that because colorectal cancer almost always develops from precancerous polyps in the colon or rectum, screening tests are an effective and efficient means in which to find precancerous polyps and detect colorectal cancer in its early stages.  Your Committee further finds that the Hawaii comprehensive breast and cervical cancer control program is a model of an effective approach to increasing the number of screenings and early detection of colorectal cancer.  Your Committee believes that the creation of a colorectal cancer screening and awareness program will increase the detection of colorectal cancer at an early stage and improve patients' chances of survival.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the appropriation amount to an unspecified sum; 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. 749, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 749, S.D. 1.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair