STAND. COM. REP. NO. 474

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 675

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 675 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII EMPLOYER-UNION HEALTH BENEFITS FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the definition of "employee-beneficiary" of the Hawaii Employer-Union Benefits Trust Fund to include the surviving unmarried adult child of a deceased retired member who is incapable of self-support due to a mental or physical incapacity, which existed prior to the unmarried child's reaching the age of majority.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

Your Committee finds that this measure is necessary to provide continued health benefit coverage to surviving children with mental or physical incapacity when the retiree and the retiree's spouse are no longer living or eligible.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 675, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 675, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair