THE SENATE

S.R. NO.

78

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


SENATE RESOLUTION

 

requesting the auditor to study the impact of mandated group health insurance coverage for infertility.

 

WHEREAS, infertility is defined as the inability to conceive after one year of unprotected intercourse (six months if the woman is over age thirty-five) or the inability to carry a pregnancy to live birth; and

WHEREAS, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 2.1 million married couples in the United States suffer from infertility or other conditions that impair their ability to have children; and

WHEREAS, infertility cuts across all socioeconomic, racial, ethnic, and religious lines; and

WHEREAS, while existing state law requires health insurance policies that include pregnancy-related benefits to include coverage for in vitro fertilization (IVF), the coverage is very limited and amounts to a one-time-only benefit for married couples with a minimum five-year history of infertility and who meet other criteria; and

WHEREAS, persons suffering from infertility may benefit from nonexperimental infertility procedures that are not currently included in mandated coverage, including artificial insemination, gamete intrafallopian transfer, intracytoplasmic sperm injection, and zygote intrafallopian transfer; and

WHEREAS, S.B. No. 157, S.D. 1, requires health insurance policies for groups of more than fifty persons that include pregnancy-related benefits to include coverage for medically-necessary expenses of fertility diagnosis and treatment; and

WHEREAS, prior to the enactment of a law mandating health insurance coverage for a specific service or disease, and pursuant to sections 23-51 and 23-52, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Auditor is required to assess the social and financial impacts of the proposed coverage and report the Auditor's findings to the Legislature; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-Second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2004, that the Auditor is requested to assess the social and financial impacts of mandated group health insurance coverage for infertility, as proposed in S.B. No. 157, S.D. 1; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in conducting the assessment, the Auditor is requested to utilize the resources of, among others, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, RESOLVE, and other organizations with expertise in infertility issues; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit the Auditor's findings to the Legislature no later than twenty days before the convening of the Regular Session of 2005; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a certified copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Mandatory Infertility Coverage; Group Policies; Sunrise Review