STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2077

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2588

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. 2588 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health for the kupuna care program, which provides caregiving services to the vulnerable elderly.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from Hawaii Pacific Health; United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO; ILWU Local 142; AARP Hawaii; Healthcare Association of Hawaii; Hawaii Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association; PHOCUSED; Catholic Charities Hawaii; and eighteen individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Health Executive Office on Aging.

Your Committees find that Hawaii's population over the age of sixty is rapidly increasing and is projected to comprise 29.7 percent of the total population by 2035. The increase in Hawaii's elderly population and the concomitant increase in demand for services, particularly for those desiring to age in place, will require continued support for programs like the kupuna care program. Your Committees further find that the kupuna care program supports the independence of Hawaii's kupuna by providing a continuum of home and community-based supports to enable kupuna to perform basic activities of daily living and successfully age in place.

Your Committees find that the funds appropriated by this measure will allow the kupuna care program to continue to provide comprehensive, participant-directed care to an increasing, and increasingly vulnerable, population.

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. 2588 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on 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