STAND. COM. REP. NO. 121

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 749

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. 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 establish and appropriate funds for a two-year Hawaii colorectal cancer screening and awareness pilot program using the Hawaii comprehensive breast and cervical cancer control program as a model.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from The Queen's Health Systems.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

     Your Committee finds that of cancers affecting men and women, cancer of the colon and rectum, also known as colorectal cancer, is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States.  In 2011, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 135,260 people in the United States were diagnosed with colorectal cancer, including 70,099 men and 65,161 women.  That same year, 51,783 people in the United States died from colorectal cancer, including 26,804 men and 24,979 women.  Because colorectal cancer almost always develops from precancerous polyps in the colon or rectum, screening tests are an easy and effective method to find precancerous polyps and detect colorectal cancer in its early stages.

     Your Committee further finds that a screening program will increase detections of any cancer at an early stage, improving chances for survival and decreasing mortality rates.  Your Committee finds that the Hawaii comprehensive breast and cervical cancer control program, established by the Legislature in 1997 to provide breast and cervical cancer screening, is a model of an effective approach to increasing the number of screenings and early detection of colorectal cancer.

     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. 749 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