Bill Text: HI SB867 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Hawaii Employer-union Health Benefits Trust Fund; Retired Employees; State and County Contributions

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Passed) 2013-07-09 - Became law without the Governor's signature, Act 282, 7/9/2013, (Gov. Msg. No. 1388). [SB867 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB867-Amended.html

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 803

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 867

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 867, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII EMPLOYER-UNION HEALTH BENEFITS TRUST FUND,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to remove the specific monetary caps on what public employers must pay for retiree health benefits.

 

Specifically, this measure:

 

     (1)  Repeals provisions relating to the base monthly contributions for health benefit plans paid by the State and counties for retired public employees;

 

     (2)  Repeals the requirement that the base composite monthly contribution be adjusted annually and the method for calculating the contribution; and

 

     (3)  Makes conforming amendments to corresponding sections of the law relating to the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund to reflect the amendments under this measure.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

 

     Your Committee finds that monthly contribution limits to the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund for retired employee beneficiaries helps to ensure sustainable health benefit plans and control the State's and counties' actuarially accrued liabilities for other post-employment benefits that are calculated under the assumption that contribution limits and caps would remain in effect.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Providing an unspecified base monthly contribution amount for supplemental Medicare and non-Medicare two-party plans;

 

     (2)  Setting forth the required state and county base monthly contribution for other retiree health benefit plans as unspecified amounts beginning January 1, 2014; and

 

     (3)  Making conforming amendments.

 

     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. 867, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 867, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

 

 

 

 

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