Isle health
insurance bill
killed

Lingle says the state health director
thinks the proposal would
lead to inferior care

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

A controversial House bill that would have created a Hawaii health authority to oversee a statewide health insurance system has been killed this session.

But its author, House Health Chairman Dennis Arakaki (D, Kalihi Valley), vows to take up the issue again next year, despite strong opposition from the health insurance industry, House Republicans and the Lingle administration.

"It's fine to take shots at this proposal; that's fine," Arakaki said on the House floor this week during debate on House Bill 1617, HD1. "But let's work at creating a solution because we're spending close to $5 billion in the state of Hawaii, and we need to come up with a more rational way of how we spend our health-care dollars.

"We need to make sure that people receive quality health care across the board -- not just for the ones who can afford to pay for it, but for everybody," he said.

The measure made it through two of its four committee assignments before it stalled this week in the House Labor Committee.

Proponents say along with providing more affordable health insurance coverage, the plan addresses Hawaii's 11 percent uninsured population by creating a single-payer system where one entity covers all the health care for Hawaii.

The original version of the bill had called for a repeal of the state's 1974 Prepaid Health Care Act, which requires employers to pay nearly all of the health insurance costs in plans offered to employees. But that provision was removed after strong opposition.

Even so, the amended bill failed to gain much momentum for passage.

Gov. Linda Lingle said this week that people in the medical community did not support the bill, including Dr. Chiyome Fukino, state health director.

"I haven't read it personally, but she is a practicing physician and thinks it's the wrong direction for our state to be going and would result in inferior care for the people of Hawaii," Lingle said.

House minority members argued stronger competition among health insurers in the state would better solve the problem.

"If you level the playing field, we'll have a lot more competition," said Rep. Cynthia Thielen (R, Kailua-Kaneohe). "We'll have a lot more variety and plans available to people, and we will lower the cost of health-care coverage."

Freshman state Rep. Brian Blundell (R, Lahaina-Kihei) said having lived in New Zealand, where there is universal health care, he has discovered the system was not equitable. He said people waited for long periods to get health care or a hospital bed -- and some even died before they got treatment.

"And in a lot of cases, people are buying insurance and going into a private program rather than into a public program," Blundell said.