Hawaii health insurance

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status report:
Hawaii state health insurance exchange

What progress is being made in setting up its federally-mandated Hawaii state health insurance exchange?"

About state health insurance exchanges

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How did Hawaii officials vote on health reform?

H.R.2: Repealing the Health Care Bill

#14

Date of Vote: 1/19/2011 Status: House passed 245-189, 1 not voting

HOUSE|SENATE

1/19/2011--Passed House amended. Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, effective as of its enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by such Act. Repeals the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of the Act's enactment. Restores provisions of law amended by the Act's health care provisions. [more]

Our
Pick

No (2)

• Colleen Hanabusa

• Mazie Hirono

how healthy is living in Hawaii?

Hawaii is ranked as the 5th healthiest state to live in, according to the 2010 America's Health Rankings® by the United Health Foundation. This ranking is unchanged from last year’s.

The good news:

• Hawaii was praised this year for its high per capita public health funding, low rate of preventable hospitalizations, low rate of uninsured members of the population, and low rates of deaths due to cancer or cardiovascular disease.
• In addition, the state has a lower prevalence of smoking (a decrease from 27.6 percent to 15.3 percent since last year), obesity, and air pollution, as well as a high rate of ready and able primary care physicians (148.5 physicians per 100,000 population).
• The number of poor mental health days in Hawaii has decreased since last year.

The bad news:

• The rate of children in poverty (taken from members of the population under the age of 18) has increased from 9.6 to 18.9 percent.
• The prevalence of obesity in Hawaii has climbed since 1990 from 15.7 percent to 22.9 percent.

Hawaii's best and worst category rankings:

• Public health funding ($235 per person) – 1st
• Preventable hospitalizations – 1st
• Lack of health insurance (8% of population) – 2nd
• Death due to cancer and cardiovascular disease – 2nd
• Prevalence of binge drinking – 35th
• Infectious disease – 40th
• Immunization coverage – 44th

more details

• See the United Health Foundation's latest findings on Hawaii.
• Trust for America's Health ia another source for key Hawaii health quality findings. In addition, 2010's federal health reform, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), included the creation of a prevention fund to provide more than $16 billion over the next 10 years to invest in effective, proven prevention efforts, like childhood obesity prevention and tobacco cessation, and the site has a report on how it impacts Hawaii here.

get local health results

State snapshot too large? Get county-by-county health rankings for Hawaii, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Population Health Institute at the University of Wisconsin.

does Hawaii have a health insurance high risk pool?

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Starting in 2010, Hawaii started offering health care insurance coverage to residents through the federally established temporary high-risk pool program. To find out more about Hawaii's participation, click here.

Risk pools are state-sponsored programs to help people with a history of medical problems in their family to purchase coverage. These pools are for people who can afford to buy health insurance, but are not able to get underwritten in the private market because of a pre-existing health condition. These programs can vary significantly from state to state in price, benefits and number of people served. Often insurance companies doing business in the state are required to contribute to the pool to keep it in the black. In the best cases, they allow people to be able to switch jobs or become self-employed without the fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Read more about risk pools here.

how to find health insurance in Hawaii

Cover The Uninsured is a national effort to highlight the fact that too many Americans are living without health insurance and to demand solutions from our nation's leaders. Read more information on its efforts. It is a project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

• Cover The Uninsured's facts on the uninsured in Hawaii and all other states.
• The Foundation for Health Coverage Education's guide on how to find health insurance in Hawaii.
• Materiales En Español – Guías para encontrar cobertura de seguro de salud.

Georgetown's Hawaii health insurance guide

Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute has researched and written state-by-state guides for finding and keeping health insurance. It updates these guides as federal and state policies change. A number of non-profit organizations help fund its research. Learn more about the Health Policy Institute.

Review Georgetown's guide for Hawaii.

Health insurance plan report cards for Hawaii

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, non-profit organization that, among other things, provides health care plan report cards for consumers.

Go here to search for Hawaii health insurance plan report cards.

Hawaii government health insurance resources

Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Services Health Insurance Page – Health insurance resources from the state of Hawaii including severable downloadable PDFs

Med-QUEST – A program which provides health insurance coverage to eligible Hawaiians It covers all ages 64 and under but has certain requirements and income eligibility guidelines.

Hawaii's Fee-For-Service Medicaid Program – serves people age 65 and over, or certified blind or disabled, coverage is provided underthis program where providers are paid directly for their services. For all other individuals, coverage is provided under a managed care program called Hawaii QUEST.