STAND. COM. REP. NO. 455

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 842

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 842 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the Department of Human Services to purchase health care services for certain low-income, uninsured immigrants.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawai‘i State Youth Commission, Hawai‘i Friends of Civil Rights, The Legal Clinic, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, and four individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Services.

Your Committee finds that there are over forty thousand undocumented members in the immigrant community who contribute to the State's workforce, and many work in low-wage, precarious jobs without health care benefits. Additionally, immigration status prevents many low-income immigrants and their families from obtaining affordable health insurance. Without health insurance, these individuals face persistent inequities in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of health conditions. To increase access to health care, this measure appropriates funds to purchase health care services for low-income, uninsured immigrants ineligible for Medicaid, the Children's Health Care Program, and health insurance exchanges established in part II of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Your Committee notes that this measure, as currently written, appropriates $1,000,000 for the purchase of health care services for certain low-income, uninsured immigrants. However, according to testimony submitted by the Department of Human Services, the implementation of this measure, as currently written, would require an annual appropriation of at least $30,000,000. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider further examining the appropriation amount necessary to implement this measure.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a blank appropriation amount;

(2) Clarifying that "low-income" means an individual whose household income is at or below one hundred fifty percent of the federal poverty level;

(3) Inserting an effective date of December 31, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment 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. 842, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 842, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health and Human Services,

________________________________

JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair