STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3037

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2605

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 1, 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, beginning January 1, 2025:

(1) Require health insurers, mutual benefit societies, and health maintenance organizations to provide health insurance coverage for various sexual and reproductive health care services; and

(2) Apply the health insurance coverage for various sexual and reproductive health care services to health benefits plans under the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one member of the Hawaiʻi County Council; Save Medicaid Hawaii; Stonewall Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi; Rainbow Family 808; Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus; Hawaiʻi Health & Harm Reduction Center; Planned Parent Alliance Advocates – Hawaiʻi; QueerDoc, PLLC; Hawaii Medical Service Association; the Hawaiʻi Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; and twenty-eight individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Insurance Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii, and Hawaii Association of Health Plans.

Your Committees find that Hawaii has long been at the forefront of advancing reproductive rights and advocating for access to affordable and comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. For example, in 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortion, three years before that right was determined to be a constitutional right protected nationwide by the United States Supreme Court. While Hawaii has since continued to make great strides in providing and expanding access to sexual and reproductive health care, your Committees find that, over time, these benefits and protections have remained under threat from those who desire to limit or prevent access to them entirely. Therefore, this measure will ensure that health insurance coverage for sexual and reproductive health care services will remain available for all people in Hawaii, protecting each resident's individual freedom to make their own sexual and reproductive health care decisions.

Your Committees note the concerns raised in testimony pertaining to the discrepancies in this measure regarding the definition of "contraceptive supplies" and whether coverage is required for alternative contraceptive supplies when a contraceptive supply covered by a policy is deemed medically inadvisable by the insured's health care provider. Accordingly, amendments to this measure are necessary to address these concerns.

Therefore, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Amending the definition of "contraceptive supplies" throughout the measure to exclude contraceptive drugs, devices, or products used by the partner of the insured, subscriber, or member;

(2) Deleting language that would have required a mutual benefit society to cover an alternative contraceptive supply prescribed by a health care provider if a contraceptive supply covered by a policy is deemed medically inadvisable by the insured's health care provider, to conform with the coverage requirement for individual or group accident and health or sickness insurers, and health maintenance organizations; 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 Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2605, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair