Isle health care law expected to endure
BY Greg Wiles
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i's U.S. senators said they will work to include an exemption for the state's Prepaid Health Care Act in any bill that passes the Senate after Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., unveiled legislation that doesn't mandate employer-sponsored coverage.
Representatives for Sen. Daniel Akaka and Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said an exemption already exists in another reform bill before the Senate and that they expect the provision will survive efforts to meld two efforts into a single piece of legislation.
"Sen. Akaka is confident it will be included in the final version that passes the Senate," spokesman Jesse Broder Van Dyke said.
Hawai'i passed the Prepaid Health Care Act in 1974, requiring employers to offer health insurance programs to workers who put in at least 20 hours a week.
The law is cited as having a major role in the state's low uninsured rate compared with most of the country.
Last year, Hawai'i's uninsured made up 7.8 percent of its population, or second-lowest in the nation. The national rate was 15.4 percent.
Some people have been worried about the possibility that the law might be superseded in health care reform, and U.S. Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Mazie Hirono of Hawai'i have taken steps to support an exemption for the law in measures being considered in the House of Representatives.
Broder Van Dyke said Akaka was able to get an exemption added to a plan that passed the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in July. The exemption states nothing in the law would modify or limit application of the Hawai'i act.
Baucus' plan was heavily anticipated because it was supposedly the product of a bipartisan effort and is the last of five proposals being examined on Capitol Hill. Among other reforms, the bill from Baucus' Finance Committee does not require employers to offer coverage to workers.
Both Akaka's and Inouye's offices said they expect that negotiators for the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees will agree to preserve a Hawai'i exemption when they meet to work out differences.
