STAND. COM. REP. NO. 120
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: S.B. No. 642
S.D. 1
Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi
President of the Senate
Thirty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2025
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 642 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INSURANCE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and
intent of this measure is to require
all health insurance policies, contracts, plans, and agreements issued or
renewed after December 31, 2025, to provide coverage for standard fertility
preservation services for persons undergoing medically necessary treatment that
may cause iatrogenic infertility.
Your Committee
received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and
Industrial Relations; American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network Inc.; Hawaii
Association of Health Plans; Alliance for Fertility
Preservation; Advanced Reproductive Medicine and Gynecology of Hawaii, Inc.;
Fertility Institute of Hawaii; The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Inc.; Hawaii Society of
Clinical Oncology; Association for Clinical Oncology; Hawaii Medical
Service Association; and seven individuals.
Your Committee
received comments on this measure from the Insurance Division of the
Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Office
of the Auditor.
Your Committee finds that health insurance
coverage of fertility preservation services provides options for patients to
have biological children even after medical treatment has resulted in temporary
or permanent infertility. Your Committee
further finds that all individuals should have equitable access to quality health
care and an equal opportunity to live a full life. This measure reduces significant financial
barriers for many patients in need of fertility preservation services and
promotes public health equity.
Your Committee acknowledges the concerns raised in the Auditor's
report Study of Proposed Mandatory Health Insurance Coverage for Standard
Fertility Preservation Services, Report No. 23-11, November 2023, that the Auditor was unable to
determine the financial impact
of
mandatory insurance coverage for
standard fertility preservation services on the total cost of health care due
to the
lack of responses from health insurance carriers, and that numerous and significant assumptions had to be made to conduct the analysis. Therefore, your Committee finds that at this
point, the coverage cannot be made mandatory, but optional. Your Committee further believes that the
optional coverage should also be made available to individuals who are
twenty-six years of age and older.
Accordingly, your Committee has amended
this measure by:
(1) Requiring health insurance policies, contracts, plans,
or agreements issued or renewed after December 31, 2025, to provide optional,
rather than mandatory, coverage for standard fertility preservation services;
(2) Deleting
language that would have limited the required health insurance coverage for
standard fertility preservation services to individuals under twenty-six years
of age covered under the policy of a policyholder;
(3) Inserting an effective date of December 31,
2050, to encourage further
discussion; and
(4) 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 Health and Human Services that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 642, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 642, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,
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________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair |
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