Bill Text: HI SB224 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Lupus; Working Group; Department of Health

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB224 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB224-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 673

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 224

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 224, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LUPUS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase education and awareness of lupus.

 

Specifically, this measure establishes a temporary working group within the Department of Health to develop a comprehensive plan to promote public and health professional education and awareness of lupus.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Medical Association and Tracy H. Okubo.

 

     Your Committee received comments on the measure from Cheryl Ann Jong, President, Lupus Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that more than one and a half million Americans and ten thousand Hawaii residents are affected by lupus.  The disease, which results from an unbalanced immune system, is unpredictable and potentially fatal and there are no satisfactory treatments.  Although the Food and Drug Administration has made recommendations, in the last fifty years there have been no new drugs approved that specifically treat lupus.  The creation of a statewide program would promote lupus education and awareness in healthcare providers and patients and increase early diagnoses.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

    

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency.

 

     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. 224, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 224, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair