STAND. COM. REP. NO 362

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1327

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Housing, Health, and Tourism and International Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1327 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH CARE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to ensure that Compact of Free Association (COFA) residents and other lawfully present legal permanent residents have access to affordable health care by:

 

     (1)  Requiring the State to pay costs assessed on low-income COFA and other lawfully present legal permanent residents who receive health care through the Hawaii Health Connector and would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid except for their citizenship status;

 

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Human Services to engage in community outreach to noncitizen resident communities to provide assistance with transfer and enrollment in health insurance plans through the Hawaii Health Connector; and

 

     (3)  Appropriating funds to the Department of Human Services for health insurance costs addressed in this measure and community outreach.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Primary Care Association; Kokua Kalihi Valley Health Center; Queen's Health Systems; PHOCUSED; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Hawaii Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice; Niu Health Chiropractic; Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery; HealthyPacific.org; Filipino Law Students Association, University of Hawaii at Manoa; SHIP-HOOPS; Hawaii Coalition for Immigrant Reform; and twenty-one individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services, Department of the Attorney General, Hawaii Medical Service Association, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that certain noncitizens who are lawfully present in the United States, including Hawaii COFA residents, are ineligible for Medicaid.  Your Committees further find that this measure seeks to advance the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's goal of increased health care access by assisting noncitizen residents, who must now access health insurance through the Hawaii Health Connector, with premium costs, co-payments, and deductibles.  Specifically, this measure will help make health insurance affordable for approximately seven thousand five hundred non-pregnant, non-aged, non-blind, and non‑disabled adult COFA noncitizen residents in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees heard testimony from the Hawaii Medical Service Association and others expressing concern that it will be operationally challenging for the Department of Human Services to pay the health providers directly for individuals' co-payments and deductibles because there is no system in place to accommodate this function, and that creating a suitable system would require additional resources.  Your Committees find that this issue raises concerns that merit further consideration.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Broadening the group of eligible noncitizens covered to ensure compliance with equal protection laws;

 

     (2)  Inserting blank appropriation amounts; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Housing, Health, and Tourism and International Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1327, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1327, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Housing, Health, and Tourism and International Affairs,

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair

 

____________________________

SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

 

 

____________________________

GILBERT KAHELE, Chair