STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2061

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2342

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2342 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to require health insurance policies offered by health insurers, mutual benefit societies, fraternal benefit societies, and health maintenance organizations to include coverage for clinical victim support services for victims of sexual violence and abuse who suffer from mental disorders.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, The Sex Abuse Treatment Center, YWCA of Hawaii, YWCA of Kaua‘i, Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Hawaii Children's Action Network, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii, IMUAlliance, Ho‘omanapono Political Action Committee, and seven individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Hawaii Medical Service Association.

Your Committees find that, unfortunately, sexual violence and abuse continues to be extremely prevalent. According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 43.9 percent of women and 23.4 percent of men have experienced forms of sexual violence other than rape within their lifetimes. Trauma from sexual violence and abuse can have significant, lasting impacts on a survivor's mental health, which can interfere with the survivor's functional ability to engage and interact with the world.

Your Committees further find that survivors with mental health conditions caused, in whole or in part, by sexual violence and abuse can require clinical victim support services, a professional intervention delivered by a qualified mental health provider with whom a victim has established a therapeutic relationship. This measure requires insurance coverage for clinical victim support services for victims of sexual violence and abuse, which will ensure that more survivors of sexual violence and abuse receive this particular kind of coordinated, multi-disciplinary care that is medically necessary for some survivors to recover and heal and which can help survivors avoid additional harm and decompensation.

Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2342, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2342, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Human Services,

________________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair