STAND. COM. REP. NO.842

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 956

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 956, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PRESUMPTIVE MEDICAID ELIGIBILITY FOR PREGNANT WOMEN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide that a pregnant woman who applies for medicaid or QUEST coverage for prenatal care or other medical services relating to her pregnancy is presumptively eligible for coverage upon application.

Your Committee finds that early and continuous prenatal care for women is nationally recognized and recommended as a standard of care that is a cost-effective method of preventing low birth weight and poor birth outcomes. Early prenatal care also reduces medical costs. Pregnant women in Hawaii who apply for medical services under medicaid or QUEST may wait weeks, even months, before eligibility is determined. During this lengthy waiting period, necessary medical services for pregnant women may be postponed or not received at all.

Your Committee further finds that the early access to medical services for pregnant women provided by this measure is not only in the best interests of the mother and infant, but also the State. State medicaid programs cover the costs of approximately twenty-five per cent of births in Hawaii, thirty-eight per cent of births with complications, and seventy-five per cent of all births in Hawaii that result in birth and post-delivery hospital charges of over $1,000,000. The presumed eligibility of pregnant women applying for medicaid or QUEST coverage will result in healthier outcomes for mother and child.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended the measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050 to facilitate continuing discussion of this critical issue. Your Committee has also made a few technical nonsubstantive changes.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 956, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 956, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair