Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection (CPN) - chair: Rosalyn H. Baker, vice chair: Brian T. Taniguchi

Friday, March 14, 2014, 9:00 a.m. Room 229

Testifier: Janet F. Mason, Co-Chair, Legislative Committee

Click here to view HB2581, HD3

Chair Baker, Vice-Chair Taniguchi, and Committee Members: The League of Women Voters of Hawaii supports HB2581, HD3 which would establish and appropriate funds for the state innovation waiver task force to develop a plan for applying for a state innovation waiver under the Federal Affordable Care Act. Examining the list of proposed task force members it appears there is a sufficient group of technical expertise to assemble an application waiver. We do question why the task force representation for employers is limited to members of the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce. We have no objection to a Chamber member being on the Task Force, but point out that Hawaii’s economy is based on small employers who are not necessarily members of the Chamber. Is there a plan to include this all-important business sector? The scope of the waivers to be studied seems appropriate and we hope the work of the task force can begin very soon. We repeat our testimony from HB2529 that our hope is the waiver application could be granted before 2017. Thank you for the opportunity to submit testimony.