Bill Text: HI SB894 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Health Insurance Coverage; Hearing Aids

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB894 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB894-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 213

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 894

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 894 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEARING AIDS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require that the cost of hearing aids be covered by private health insurers.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Disability and Communication Access Board, Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii, and ten individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from Hawaii Association of Health Plans.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Hawaii Medical Service Association, and Kaiser Permanente.

 

     Your Committees find that hearing aids can cost more than $2,000, which is an expense beyond the reach of many households.  Your Committees further find that private health insurance plans provide partial coverage for eyeglasses to correct vision.  Some health insurance plans provide partial coverage for hearing aids.  However, Medicare and most private insurance companies do not cover the cost of hearing aids through their base health care coverage.  As a result, it is not unusual for people with hearing loss to choose not to purchase hearing aids because these expensive devices are not covered by insurance.

 

     Your Committees also find that hearing is an equally important sense upon which an individual depends for communication, so an individual with hearing loss should have some coverage for hearing aids through a private insurance carrier.

 

     Your Committees have heard the concerns regarding mandating health plans to expand benefits and the need for a study related to the social and financial effects of requiring health insurers to offer coverage for hearing aids.  Your Committees believe that these concerns merit further discussion by the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by 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 Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 894, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 894, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

____________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair		____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair