HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	156
TWENTY-SEVENTH LEGISLATURE, 2014
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

REQUESTING the PRESIDENT of the united states to exempt Hawaii, THROUGH EXECUTIVE ORDER, FROM THE FEDERAL PATIENT PROTECTION AND AFFORDABLE CARE ACT AND REQUESTING THE SUPPORT OF Hawaii's CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii leads the nation in the percentage of residents with health insurance coverage because, under the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act, Hawaii employers are required to provide all full-time employees with health insurance coverage, resulting in a very small number of uninsured residents; and

 

     WHEREAS, United States President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law requiring all Americans to have health insurance coverage after January 1, 2014, and prohibiting insurers from using loss-experience rating to set insurance premiums; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act further made it discretionary for states to implement an age-based rating system, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. section 300gg(a)(1), and delay small business health options programs pursuant to 45 C.F.R. section 155.705; and

 

     WHEREAS, due to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's age-based rating mandate, health insurance prices for small business employers, specifically employers that employ less than fifty employees, have risen to such a level that small businesses in Hawaii have little incentive to provide health insurance for their older workers; and

 

     WHEREAS, small business employers are reacting to the rising prices of health insurance by terminating or reducing work hours of older workers to avoid providing health insurance; and

 

     WHEREAS, these older workers, whether terminated from employment or employed part-time, increase Hawaii's uninsured population gap; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State implemented the Hawaii Health Connector in 2011, in response to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act's mandate for all states to offer a marketplace for health insurance coverage by establishing a financially sustainable health insurance exchange; and

 

WHEREAS, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act does not require termination of individual or small group plans in which an individual was enrolled on or before March 23, 2010, also known as "grandfathered health plans"; and

 

WHEREAS, recent transitional policies announced by the United States Department of Health and Human Services allow health insurance issuers to continue certain coverage through October 1, 2016, that would otherwise be canceled for noncompliance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act market reforms; and

 

WHEREAS, grandfathered health plans and transitional policies have prevented sustainability of the Hawaii Health Connector by restricting enrollment; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hawaii Health Connector originally estimated that it would serve an uninsured population of about one hundred thousand persons; however, current estimates have reduced the number of potential enrollees to fifty thousand persons, due to predictions that roughly half of the estimated population qualify for Medicaid; and

 

WHEREAS, an enrollment of fifty thousand persons with the Hawaii Health Connector is insufficient to establish financial sustainability for the Hawaii Health Connector, and its financial losses are drastically exacerbated by the current enrollment of about five thousand persons; and

 

WHEREAS, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is moving Hawaii away from the goal of universal healthcare coverage because its required health care reforms have actually increased Hawaii's uninsured population gap through age-based rating; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-seventh Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2014, that the President of the United States is requested to exempt Hawaii, by Executive Order, from the mandates of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Hawaii's congressional delegation is requested to support Hawaii's request for an exemption from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States and the members of Hawaii's congressional delegation.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Hawaii Exemption