STAND. COM. REP. NO 698

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1338

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1338, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII HEALTH CONNECTOR,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Enable the Hawaii Health Connector (Connector) to offer large group coverage to insurers;

 

     (2)  Expand the potential small businesses market in the Connector by amending the current definition of "small employer" under section 431:2-201.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

 

     (3)  End transitional renewal policies in Hawaii beginning January 1, 2016; and

 

     (4)  Require health insurers to provide notice to group health plans offering continuation coverage about options to secure affordable coverage under the Connector.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Primary Care Association and one individual.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Health Connector, and Hawaii Medical Service Association.

 

Your Committees find that this measure offers a number of options to strengthen the Connector, including enabling the Connector to offer large group coverage to insurers and changing the definition of "small employers" in Hawaii from fifty employees to the nationally accepted threshold of one hundred employees.  These options will encompass a greater number of businesses in the State, which will provide for a stronger Connector and a better marketplace for consumers.

 

     Your Committees further find that transitional renewal policies, also known as grandmothered health plans, do not provide all of the features and protections of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Affordable Care Act).  Ending transitional renewal policies on January 1, 2016, as proposed by this measure, will simplify health plan choices for individuals and small businesses and will ensure that all plans offered in Hawaii are fully compliant with the Affordable Care Act.

 

     Your Committees additionally find that it is important that individuals on unemployment be made aware of potential savings through programs that provide tax credits and other cost-sharing reductions that may lower the overall price of health care.  Accordingly, this measure requires health insurers to provide notice to group health plans offering continuation coverage about options to secure affordable coverage under the Connector.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by changing the threshold number of employees under the definition of "small employer" from one hundred employees to an unspecified number of employees.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1338, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1338, S.D. 2.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair

 

________________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair