Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act

Hawaii Prepaid Health Care (PHC) Act (PHCA) is a state law (Hawaii Revised Statutes Chapter 393)[1] enacted June 12, 1974[2] in the State of Hawaii to improve health care coverage by employer mandate. The Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act set a minimum standards of health care benefits for workers.[3] Upon its adoption in 1974, Hawaii became the first U.S. state to require minimum standards of health care benefits by law.[3] Hawaii State Rep. Yoshito Takamine, the longtime chairman of the House Labor Committee, was one of the law's chief architects and proponents.[3]

Among other things, Hawaii's law requires employers to offer coverage to employees working at least 20 hours per week for four or more consecutive weeks. In contrast, the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires employers to offer coverage to employees working at least 30 hours per week effective Jan. 1, 2014. The two laws also establish different penalties for employers that do not offer coverage.

Before the passage of the Prepaid Health Care Act, Hawaii had an uninsured rate of 30%. By 2013, Hawaii's uninsured rate of 6.7% was the second-lowest uninsured rate in the nation, trailing only Massachusetts, which had an uninsured rate of 3.7%.[4][5]

References
  1. Hawaii State Legislature. "Chapter 393: Prepaid Health Care Act". 2010 Hawaii Revised Statutes. Retrieved 2011-02-17.
  2. Hawaii (1974). "Act 210 S.B. 14 Prepaid health care". Session laws of Hawaii passed by the State Legislature; Regular Session 1974, Special Session 1974. Honolulu: The State of Hawaii. pp. xii, 459–469. OCLC 7102901.
  3. Burnett, John (2015-10-14). "Yoshito Takamine dies at 89". West Hawaii Today. Retrieved 2015-11-26.
  4. US Census Bureau. "Table A-1" (PDF). Health Insurance Coverage in the United States 2013. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  5. "Hawaii health insurance: find affordable coverage". healthinsurance.org. 2017-07-05. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
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