STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1476

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    H.B. No. 481

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 481, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys for an advanced life support ambulance to be used in the Makalei area on the island of Hawaii during daily peak hours from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., including moneys to acquire a vehicle and equipment and fund personnel costs for state-certified emergency medical service personnel.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Health, The Daniel Sayre Memorial Foundation, and one individual.

 

Your Committee finds that the Makalei area has experienced a significant increase in population, and this has corresponded to a notable increase in calls for emergency medical services to that area.  Access to primary health care in Makalei is challenging for the community because many residents are up to thirty miles away from the nearest primary care services.  Your Committee further finds that Makalei residents would benefit from the addition of an advanced life support ambulance to supplement the Hawaii county emergency medical services system.  Your Committee believes that a new advanced life support ambulance would provide badly needed access to emergency medical services to the Makalei area, thus improving medical care and reducing deaths and disabilities among the residents of this remote community.

 

Your Committee notes that if sufficient moneys are available in the emergency medical services special fund to fund the purposes of this measure, those moneys should be utilized prior to the expenditure of moneys appropriated by this measure.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2060, to facilitate further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 481, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 481, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair