STAND. COM. REP. NO. 546

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1138

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Health and Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1138 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO VACCINATION GUIDELINES,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to adopt, amend, or repeal rules to establish a list of specific vaccines and to adopt, amend, or repeal, as rules, the immunization recommendations of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, as they apply to the list of specific vaccines, ensuring that immunizations required, and the manner and frequency of their administration, conform with currently recognized standard medical practices.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Academy of Physician Assistants, Walgreens, National Council of Asian Pacific Islander Physicians, and Hawaii Immunization Coalition.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines are a safe, efficient, and cost-effective way to protect against vaccine-preventable diseases.  Vaccinating a population saves health care dollars and assists each year in preventing millions of cases of vaccine-preventable diseases nationwide.  This measure will allow the Department of Health the flexibility to adopt nationally accepted standards of practice with regard to vaccines and will help accomplish the adequate administration of vaccines to meet an important public health need.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Education that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1138 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Education,

 

____________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

 

____________________________

JOSH GREEN, Chair