Bill Text: HI SB43 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Mental Health; Adult Mental Health; Homeless Services; Appropriation ($)

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-15 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [SB43 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB43-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 361

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 43

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

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 Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 43 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Require the Adult Mental Health Division of the Department of Health to provide services to people with a qualifying diagnosis, including services that are not covered by an insurance policy held by or for the benefit of the individual who seeks services; and

 

     (2)  Appropriate funds for mental health services for adults, adolescents, and children that were eliminated or reduced in the past two years and substance abuse treatment and mental health support services for individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, and Community Alliance for Mental Health.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health.

 

     Your Committees find that in recent years the Department of Health has decreased the amount and types of mental health services it provides.  This reduction in services has resulted in considerable suffering and even death.  This measure will restore services that have been eliminated or reduced by mandating coverage for certain illnesses and making appropriations to restore mental health services.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2030, to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 43, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 43, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services,

 

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair