REPORT TITLE:
Dental Services


DESCRIPTION:
Appropriates funds to provide dental services to adults.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                        
THE SENATE                              S.B. NO.           2027
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2000                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
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                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR DENTAL SERVICES FOR ADULTS. 


BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  The legislature finds that as of February 1,
 
 2 1996, basic dental services for adults covered by Medicaid and
 
 3 Med-QUEST were discontinued.  Presently, Medicaid and Med-QUEST
 
 4 cover only emergency dental services.
 
 5      However, Medicaid, a federally funded program, will provide
 
 6 fifty-one and one-half per cent of the funds necessary to provide
 
 7 basic dental coverage to Medicaid and Med-QUEST adult clients.
 
 8 The State must provide the remaining forty-eight and one-half per
 
 9 cent of the necessary funds.  
 
10      The legislature further finds that access to dental services
 
11 is important to general health and that current access is
 
12 insufficient to meet demand especially on the neighbor islands.
 
13      The legislature further finds that the department of health
 
14 and some community health centers have had to reduce or
 
15 discontinue adult dental services due to budget restrictions.  As
 
16 a result of these restrictions, indigent adults, who are covered
 
17 by Medicaid or Med-QUEST, have no access to basic dental care.
 
18      The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the
 
19 department of human services to provide basic dental services on
 

 
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                                     S.B. NO.           2027
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 a fee-for-services basis for qualified adults with an annual cap
 
 2 of $250 per adult.
 
 3      SECTION 2.  There is appropriated out of the general
 
 4 revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $          , or so
 
 5 much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2000-2001, to
 
 6 provide basic dental services for adults covered by Medicaid and
 
 7 Med-QUEST on a fee-for-services basis through the Med-QUEST
 
 8 progam.
 
 9      SECTION 3.  The sum appropriated shall be expended by the
 
10 department of human services for the purposes of this Act.
 
11      SECTION 4.  This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2000.
 
12 
 
13                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________