Report Title:

Appropriation; Community Health Centers

Description:

Appropriates funds to DOH to pay for primary medical, dental, and behavioral health services for uninsured Hawaii residents through nonprofit, community-based primary health care centers.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

2683

TWENTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2004

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO PRIMARY HEALTH CARE.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii's community health centers provide family-oriented, high quality primary medical, dental, and behavioral health care services for people living in rural and urban medically underserved communities. These health centers exist in areas where economic, geographic, or cultural barriers limit access to primary health care for a substantial portion of the population, and they tailor services to the needs of the community. Such centers include the Hana Community Health Center and Community Clinic of Maui; the Hamakua Health Center and Bay Clinic on the island of Hawaii; and the Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, Queen Emma Clinics, and the Kalihi-Palama, Waikiki, Waimanalo, and Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Centers on Oahu. Residents, neighbor island visitors, and tourists statewide rely on community health centers to provide a wide array of medical services in rural communities.

The legislature further finds that the estimated number of Hawaii residents who do not have health insurance has doubled -- growing from sixty-eight thousand two hundred in 1996 to one hundred thirty-five thousand nine hundred in 2001. This increase generates a considerable economic impact on the State's hospitals, community health centers, and other participants in the health care industry and threatens their ability to effectively serve the whole community.

The legislature further finds that it is in the best interest of the State to ensure access to primary and preventive health care for its residents. Access to health care gives rise to a healthier population, who can then play a key role in the economic revitalization of our State. Moreover, providing access to care reduces state expenditures attributable to hospital and emergency room services for preventable injuries or illnesses.

SECTION 2. (a) The legislature finds that, while community health centers represent the best system of community-based primary care for uninsured people, financial support for community health centers is inadequate to meet increasing demands. More specifically, community health centers have experienced a forty-one per cent increase in uninsured visits since 1997.

(b) The legislature shall provide cost-effective primary medical, dental, and behavioral care for Hawaii residents who are uninsured, to ensure that the community health center system remains financially viable and stable in the face of a growing population of uninsured. The legislature shall budget for these services as long as this health crisis exists.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $3,500,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2004-2005, to provide resources to nonprofit, community-based health-care providers to care for the uninsured.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2004.

INTRODUCED BY:

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