The House Committee on Labor & Public Employment

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

10:30 a.m., Room 309

RE: HCR 38/HR 10 Requesting the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF) to Review its Health Care Coverage for Retirees and Their Family Members

Attention:    Chair Mark Nakashima, Vice Chair Jarrett Keohokalole and Members of the Committee

The University of Hawaii Professional Assembly (UHPA) urges the committee to pass HCR 38/HR 10 to encourage the EUTF to review its health care coverage for retirees and their family members, and specifically to review the issue of the extension of dependent coverage to the age of 26 for the EUTF Retirees, which would align the EUTF Retiree Plan with the EUTF Active Plans.

The EUTF Board has the jurisdiction to take action on extending this benefit to the Retiree beneficiaries.  At the EUTF Board Meeting on March 17, 2011 the Employee Trustees all voted unanimously in favor (with one Trustee abstaining due to a conflict), while the Employer Trustees voted unanimously in opposition to extending this benefit to the Retiree beneficiaries.  Due the rules governing the EUTF and the requirement to have a majority of both the Employee and Employer Trustees, the measure failed to pass.  It is a subject that has continued to come up at EUTF Board Meetings due to the negative impact it has on the Retiree beneficiaries.

We respectfully urge your support of these measures.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kristeen Hanselman                                                                                                                                        Executive Director