STAND. COM. REP. NO.1059-02

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2180

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Public Employment and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Consumer Protection and Commerce, to which was referred S.B. No. 2180, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GENETIC INFORMATION AND GENETIC TESTING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to prohibit the use of, or the requirement for, genetic testing by employers and insurers for health care, life insurance, and long-term care insurance.

The Department of Health, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, and ILWU Local 142 testified in support of this measure. A concerned citizen testified in support of the intent of the bill. The American Council of Life Insurance, Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Christian Science Committee on Publication for Hawaii commented on this measure.

This measure would protect employees and potential insureds from discriminatory practices based solely on an employee or insured's refusal to submit to a genetic test or on their genetic information. Your Committees feel that this is a necessary protection for employees and insureds since genetic testing provides limited information about the risk of disease as there are many factors that contribute to, and determine whether, an illness will actually occur.

Moreover, your Committees believe that if an employer or insurer takes an adverse action against a current employee or insurance client, or an applicant for employment or insurance based upon genetic information, the employer or insurer is committing disability discrimination because the employer or insurer equates having the genetic predisposition for a disease to having the actual disease itself.

However, your Committees feel that further clarification of the definition of "being regarded as having such an impairment" is needed and have amended this measure by amending this definition:

(1) To include the situation where the individual's refusal to submit to a genetic test is a condition of intial or continued employment; and

(2) Removing reference to the situation where the employer initiated a genetic test without the knowledge of the individual.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Labor and Public Employment and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Consumer Protection and Commerce that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2180, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2180, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor and Public Employment and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs and Consumer Protection and Commerce,

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair

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SCOTT K. SAIKI, Chair

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KENNETH T. HIRAKI, Chair