THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	143
THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2021
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting the auditor to conduct a social and financial assessment of proposed mandatory health insurance coverage.

 

 

 

        WHEREAS, Hawaii has long been a leader in advancing reproductive rights, advocating the importance of access to reproductive health care without discrimination, and implementing forward-thinking reproductive health care policy; and

 

        WHEREAS, Hawaii's benefits and protections have been threatened for four years by a hostile federal administration that has attempted to restrict and repeal the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and limit access to sexual and reproductive health care benefits and protections; and

 

        WHEREAS, the Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for insurers to cover abortion care and has assembled a Supreme Court that may restrict abortion access and eliminate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the near future; and

 

        WHEREAS, the COVID-19 pandemic has cost thousands of Hawaii residents their jobs and health insurance, making it critical for the State to support struggling families by ensuring preventative care and limiting out-of-pocket costs; and

 

        WHEREAS, the safeguarding of access to abortion, the solidification of the essential health benefits that have changed thousands of lives, and the improvement to overall access to care requires the preservation of certain important aspects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the expansion of access to care for residents of Hawaii; and

 

        WHEREAS, H.B. No.      , introduced during the Regular Session of 2021, requires health insurers, mutual benefit societies, and health maintenance organizations to provide coverage without cost-sharing for a comprehensive category of reproductive health services, drugs, devices, products, and procedures and also prohibits discrimination in the provision of reproductive health care services; and

 

        WHEREAS, section 23-51, Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires that before any legislative measure that mandates health insurance coverage for specific health services, specific diseases, or certain providers of health care services as part of individual or group health insurance policies can be considered, there shall be concurrent resolutions passed requesting the Auditor to prepare and submit to the Legislature a report that assesses both the social and financial effects of the proposed mandatory coverage, and H.B. No.       (2021) is such a measure; now, therefore,

 

        BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2021, the House of Representatives concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct a social and financial assessment of the mandatory health insurance coverage proposed under H.B. No.      , which was introduced during the Regular Session of 2021; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit a report of the Auditor's findings and recommendations, including any proposed legislation, to the Legislature not later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2022; and

 

        BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor, Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, and Insurance Commissioner.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title:  

Insurance