STAND. COM. REP. NO. 109

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 1023

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirtieth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2019

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1023 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Health to provide funding for the kupuna care program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i State Commission on the Status of Women; Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs; Maui County Office on Aging; AARP; O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i; Alzheimer's Association, Aloha Chapter; International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142; Chinatown Gateway Plaza Tenant Association; Hawaii Chapter of the American Physical Therapy Association; Catholic Charities Hawai‘i; and twenty-three individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Executive Office on Aging.

Your Committee finds that the kupuna care program assists frail adults age sixty and older with leading independent, meaningful, and dignified lives by providing a continuum of home and community based services and supports. Kupuna care aims to allow Hawaii's kupuna to age in place, thus preventing or delaying the need for more expensive and restrictive levels of care. According to testimony from the Executive Office on Aging, in fiscal year 2018, kupuna care services were provided to 5,643 individuals. The Governor's base budget request would enable the State to serve an additional two hundred sixty-two individuals.

Your Committee notes that consistent funding for the kupuna care program is critical, as keeping seniors healthy and at home is the most cost-effective way to address the rapidly increasing population of adults age sixty and older in the State. Accordingly, your Committee respectfully requests that your Committee on Ways and Means include the appropriation for the kupuna care program in the budget as a recurring cost item.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1023 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health,

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ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair