STAND. COM. REP. NO. 997

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.C.R. No. 24

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 24 entitled:

 

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO ASSESS THE SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL EFFECTS OF REQUIRING HEALTH INSURERS TO PROVIDE COVERAGE FOR CERTAIN SMOKING CESSATION METHODS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Auditor to assess the social and financial effects of requiring health insurers to provide coverage for certain smoking cessation methods.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, American Cancer Society, and American Heart Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that every year in Hawaii, over eleven hundred people die from tobacco-related illnesses and secondhand smoke exposure and almost six hundred of these deaths are attributable to lung cancer.  Your Committee further finds that smoking cessation treatments are one of the most basic forms of preventative health care and have a direct and measurable effect of preventing illness and saving lives.  Finally, your Committee notes that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, allowing tobacco dependence treatments that include medication and counseling to be a covered benefit under health insurance plans has been shown to increase the number of smokers who use cessation treatment, make an attempt at quitting, and successfully quit smoking.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Amending its title for accuracy; and

 

     (2)  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 concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 24, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 24, S.D. 1.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair