STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2915

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3129

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 3129, S.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:

(1) Establish the Hui Hoʻomana Task Force within the State Health Planning and Development Agency to develop a comprehensive plan to provide universal access to equitable and affordable high-quality health care for state residents; and

(2) Require the Hui Hoʻomana to submit reports to the Legislature.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Human Services, Insurance Division of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Executive Office on Aging, State Council on Developmental Disabilities, State Health Planning and Development Agency, University of Hawaiʻi System, AARP Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Primary Care Association, Hawaii Association of Health Plans, and AlohaCare.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Hawaiʻi State Center for Nursing, Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Papa Ola Lokahi, Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health, and The Queen's Health System.

Your Committee finds that access to quality, affordable health care enables individuals to lead productive and fulfilling lives. However, with approximately eighty thousand uninsured residents, and many more underinsured, the State must do more to promote health equity, increase access to primary care services, set health care expenditures on a more sustainable trajectory, and lower health care costs for residents. Therefore, this measure seeks to address these issues by establishing a task force to make recommendations on how the State can best achieve universal access and equity to quality health care at an affordable cost for Hawaii residents.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Adding the Dean of the University of Hawaii Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing or the Dean's designee as a voting member of the Hui Hoʻomana, thereby increasing the total number of the task force's voting members from twenty-five to twenty-six;

(2) Replacing the Regional President of Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Hawaii Region or the Regional President's designee with one representative of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospital, as a voting member of the Hui Hoʻomana to be invited by the Administrator of the State Health Planning and Development Agency; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3129, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3129, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair