Hawaii Health Reform Update 09-04-11

[Denver Dave]

Hawaii Health Reform Update 09-04-11

A portion of the update from health care reform advocate, Steve Kemble, MD, from Hawaii is included below, for more information see:

http://www.hctalk.com/viewtopic.php?p=1804

and

www.pnhp.org/states/hawaii

After years of effort by Health Care for All Hawaii, spearheaded by the late Ah Quon McElrath and Jory Watland, the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill in 2009 (Act 11 2009) to create the Hawaii Health Authority (HHA), a 9-member board appointed by the Governor, charged with designing a "universal health care system covering everyone in the state." The HHA includes 3 members appointed directly by the Governor, 3 from a list submitted by the President of the Hawaii Senate, and 3 from a list submitted by the Speaker of the House. The HHA was to report to the Legislature with actionable legislation by January 2011, but our then Republican Governor Linda Lingle vetoed the bill. The Democratically controlled legislature overrode her veto, but she refused to appoint the HHA Board and the law languished.

This session, the Hawaii Legislature passed a bill to extend the reporting date for HHA to January 2012. Our current Democratic Governor Neil Abercrombie was a co-sponsor or HR 676 (House single-payer bill) when he was our Congressman. On September 1, 2011 he hired Beth Giesting as his Health Transformation Coordinator, and he appointed the Hawaii Health Authority.