STAND. COM. REP. NO. 413

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 1349

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Human Services & Homelessness, to which was referred H.B. No. 1349 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEDICAID,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Human Services to authorize Medicaid coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program to income-qualified pregnant persons and children regardless of immigration status.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Hawai‘i County Council; Indivisible Hawai‘i; American Association of University Women of Hawaii; The Legal Clinic; Hawai‘i Children's Action Network Speaks!; The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Hawai‘i Section; Save Medicaid Hawaii; Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights; AlohaCare; Hawai‘i Friends of Civil Rights; Roots Reborn Maui; and numerous individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that access to high-quality, affordable health care is essential for public health, yet many individuals in Hawaii are denied Medicaid and other health coverage due to their immigration status. Your Committee further finds that lack of prenatal care significantly increases the risk of preterm birth and neonatal death, placing parents and infants in life-threatening situations. Currently, twenty-four states and the District of Columbia provide Medicaid coverage to all income-qualified pregnant residents regardless of immigration status, in recognition of the long-term health and economic benefits this coverage provides. This measure appropriates funds to the Department of Human Services to expand Medicaid coverage through the Children's Health Insurance Program, ensuring that income-qualified pregnant individuals and children have access to essential care and improving health outcomes for Hawaii's families.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider the costs, as estimated by the Department of Human Services, to support health insurance coverage under program ID HMS401, as proposed by this measure, as follows:

(1) $744,000 for pregnant persons;

(2) $620,000 for pregnant persons, including ten months post-partum care; and

(3) $2,976,000 for children under the Health Services Initiative option.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services & Homelessness that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1349, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1349, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services & Homelessness,

____________________________

LISA MARTEN, Chair