 To be examined or I think another thing that we haven't looked at or talked about I'm sure is that if you went out to get another doctor and you're paying him Of course, he is going to say whatever you want him to say. I Think because he's been paid by you It's it's like the experts on jury trials when you pay the expert. They say what you want So I think that this is a good idea to include the nurses so that and those nurses on Neighbor islands have their own practices and in most cases They are the primary caregiver. Yeah, and certainly they have as much experience as a lot of the doctors that patients would be seeking out Regardless, so I think that they are certainly qualified to be making those decisions What there's another thing that came up about this quote slippery slope They the opponent say this is a slippery slope. I'm not sure that I understand what a slippery slope is. Do you I? Think slippery slope is a word that's Been used to just indicate that there's some level of uncertainty I think those we've been discussing Marsha when you look at the background of these advanced practice nurses There really is no uncertainty in it. I think it's just an opportunity that opponents see to try and introduce some confusion To their supporters possibly but that this should not be considered a slippery slope They're they're very qualified advanced practice nurses that we were talking about here now one shift gears here when people the the fear mongers And I that's what they are and they come up with all kinds of strange things like the handicapped and old people Can you address that how that is addressed in the bill? Yeah, you know one of the arguments I keep hearing That I think has been a little bit unique to Hawaii is that it somehow is not honoring our kapuna here And I hear opponents say that and I just don't think there could be anything further from the truth by giving people options and and of course we love Our kapuna and our relatives and want them to have the most comfortable Experience at the end of their life that they choose. So that's one that I've particularly Been bothered by I think the other ones. It's just simply reading the bill Not listing really to the supporters or the opponents But if everyone takes a moment to read the bill for themselves, I think you can see that all the safeguards are in place It would be incredibly Difficult to abuse any part of this law and I don't think in its existence and in other states and in other countries There are any recorded cases of abuse. So I think just using common sense and taking some of the emotion out Although it's a very emotionally charged issue. We can see that it's really Written well with the safeguards that need to be there. Yeah, it's going from From all of these different committees to the floor of the Senate and There it will be debated again now as We have heard that the last time it lost by three votes and one of them today She said she voted no because of the lack of safeguards So I guess we can and she voted oh yes today, but she did address the safeguards so What do you think now you're talking to the constituents out there? What do you think we should do between now and the time? That it goes to the floor of the Senate I think you know your senators and and soon it will be in the House of Representatives If you care about this issue one way or another or you want to see a safeguard in place Or you just want to make your voice heard It's really important that you continue to submit testimony when they're allowing for testimony as in the last two hearings Or call your senators or your representatives and let them know how you feel about the bill And and what you want to see happen with it this year in the legislature I think that's all of our civic duty to do that when you feel strongly about an issue such as this one Okay now for anyone that doesn't know in Hawaii is Probably the only state where every Legislator every senator the mayor the city council oh ha all of their telephone numbers are listed and all of their doors are unlocked So we are urging you to get involved Yes, or no doesn't matter Pick up the phone call them find out where your legislator who your legislator is and call them and The state has a wonderful web page that has all of that information Pictures of your legislators where the the district you represent the telephone numbers and all of this is on the Hawaii State Legislature web page so I'm encouraging you to go to do this and To stay involved to get involved to be a part of this. This is your government and so we need you to be there Thank you, sweetheart. Now. We need to head on to the next office. Oh, we can keep talking Well, we are going to We're live now. Oh dear and we wasted all of that That was all live. We're still live. Okay. Yeah, we're going over to You No Hashem, yeah, we are headed over to a visit with some of the representatives and I Think it's this way It is amazing all of this looks alike when you're out here But it's a wonderful building. Can you look around? Can you see you get a good shot? can you can can you look out see this it's a beautiful building and See the opening and Hold on Go get Blake. Yes So I'm I'm just It opens all the way to the sky and it is designed like the state of Hawaii with this Beautiful beautiful see down here. Can you get that? it's around the water and then there's a moat that goes around the building like the water and all of this like a volcano is open to the sky and The legislators offices are all the way around all through here and Then the governor is up on the top floor and the lieutenant governor's on the top floor and Here is my dear friend Hi, how you doing? This is Blake Oshiro and Blake was a legislator and Tell us all of those Tell us all those wonderful things you've done. Yeah, I was in the state legislature from 2000 to 2011 and then I worked in governor Abercrombie's Cabinet I was his deputy chief of staff for three years. Wow. What does a deputy chief of staff? I? Oversaw all his policy and his budget objectives what speaking of his policy and We are here today because of the judiciary hearing on the bill medical aid and dying and Your former boss Governor Abercrombie signed that letter from three other senators. Do you know about that letter? Yes, yes, he signed there were the four governors our Yoshi why hey a Abercrombie Had all submitted their letter to the editor in support of death with dignity So that was part of his policy was it I know it was Ben Cayetano had Had an egg. What do you call it a panel turn to look into to see this? So was the governor Abercrombie a part of that did he do what was his policy on? So he never had a bill that was in front of him But he was always generally supportive and so I think that now that we're in this moment in time We see that there is a good political opportunity and hopefully we'll be able to get a bill passed this session good, so it's passed The Senate health and the Senate judiciary Now it goes to the floor correct then what what happens? What do you expect on the floor? Well, we're hoping that the vote for the Senate will be favorable It will pass by a strong majority vote and then at that point it crosses over to the house and the house So get their opportunity to hear the bill and really see the amount of support that there is for medical aid in dying and Ultimately pass it, but we really need people out there to continue to contact their legislators to make sure that this moves through the process now you Tell me the name of the company you work for compassion and choices Hawaii and the other company Capital consultants of capital consultants and the founder of capital consultants John Radcliffe correct is Terminally ill and he is out in the front on this issue. Correct What's it like working with John? Oh, John is great, you know, he retired from capital consultants So he is no longer with the organization, but he's still around It kind of depends on his health, you know, it goes up and down But he has been a great great champion and advocate for this issue He's been a tremendous mentor and there is just about nobody that is just a more Splendid person that I've met and so I'm really glad to have gotten an opportunity to work with him And I'm really glad that he's been able to help out on this bill Oh, he's really out front. Do you know anything about the lawsuit that he filed? That I don't know. I don't have too much information on it. I just know that they filed something Because they were hoping that at least they'll have two different tracks one in the political legislative process and One in the courts and so they'll hopefully Get the legislative process and get a bill passed and then we won't even need So from my understanding now and and I'm I have to admit that I have no idea about the legalese but what I understand from reading about the The lawsuit is that it is just for him It just allows him to have the medication to end his life When the time comes is that what you understand? Well, what it's seeking to do is make it clear that a Physician would not be penalized in the event that a physician provides the lethal medication if John decides to take his own life and so that's the important missing piece in all of this is the physician needs to feel that there is immunity and that they're not going to be criminally prosecuted for any activity in Facilitating or assisting with the access to the medication and if a court finds in that favor Then that would change the landscape because of precedence So it's not a really seeking it only for John. It's seeking to change the legal landscape for Presidential value. Well, thank you as always. It's always a pleasure being with you and keep up the good job Thank you. Aloha. Aloha now. We're off to Hashem is this way Three notes three. I'm sure it's this way. I think Okay, let's head down to representative mark Hashem's office So We are going to visit with my Representative representative mark Hashem because I am Because I'd lean on him all the time and That's something that all of your viewers ought to do get to know your legislator Get to that. He knows you Knock on his door Ring his telephone so that that makes all the difference in the world in your access to the legislature and That I want you to meet him. He is a super super super guy and and that's That's where you elect your super guys so Aloha here we are Aloha And I was just telling you all about my favorite legislator Representative mark Hashem. Well, you are my favorite. Come on. Thank you. I Thought I was your only you are my only yeah This is from district 18, which is east on a Lulu and from where to where from Hawaii, Kai Costco to Kahala mall. Oh boy Yeah, so we are here today a to meet you to talk about you and what you do here in this Lovely place. Oh and with my friend can Hello, Ken and what why you hiding come on Why are you hiding back here? This is part of the staff and these are the people that make things happen They let him think he you know they send him to the floor But these are really the people that make things happen around here. And so we are delighted to meet you and Now tell us about you and what you do. What is your what issues are you and What committees are you on and all that kind of wonderful stuff? Okay, I'm like I'm on the housing committee the transportation committee the higher ed and Education higher ed and lower ed. So lower ed is basically K through 12 and higher it is UH UH systems and they're separated in the committees the committees are all separated and I'm currently the vice chair of higher ed so when and You are the chair of what? I'm the vice chair of higher ed. No, but you're the chair of some other committee I was the chair of housing up until this last until this session So, but you're not a chair. No. Oh, oh, is that good? I think so. Yes Okay, so now what tell us how all of that works Usually there's several committees every bill has a referral. So we should take a bill and we could follow it We just got through with So like this I have a bill sheet of all the bill all the bills that we're tracking So there's one that's related to transportation. So this bill goes through the Committee on transportation first it gets heard it gets debated there people come in and Give public testimony the trend transportation chair will make changes if they if he feels fit then the bill will go on to the To the Judiciary committee while this particular bill goes to the judiciary committee HP 225 So they'll go to the judiciary committee the chair of the judiciary will make changes based upon the testimony he hears and then It finally goes to the floor then it gets tossed over to the Senate so That's a lot of stuff. Yeah, so people call you they write you they send you testimony And then what happens? What do you read all of that? Yes, you read through every all the bills You read page by page word by word figure it up because a lot of times One word can make a big difference within the bill simply shall or may Very different You shall Be taxed at 10% or you may be taxed at 10% there's a big difference between those two words So right shall you have to do this or may this is the ceiling you can go below or above or Harvard's worded and Then after you pull out all of those and rewrite it or that that becomes an amendment to the bill Yes, that's correct. It gets amended it goes to the next committee then that amended bill gets re re-heard people testify on the amendments then after after that It goes to the Senate side and it goes through the same process so while we're going through the the hearing process right now the Senate's going through the same hearing process on the Senate side and Well, do they have the same bill or the different bills many times? It's the same bills and Sometimes it's just Just bills that are in the Senate and not in the house or only in the house and not the Senate most of the times It's the same bills. So if it's only in one does that bill move to this house? How does that work? Yes, if it's on one if it's on one chamber It goes through that chamber then comes over to the house the house side then it goes through the hearings on the house side then it goes Would at the end it goes to conference and the two chairs work out the difference between the house version and the Senate version So now what I read a lot of words here Okay, we should sit down actually. Okay, what come on in the office. It's a lovely office We're watching sorry if you look on the TVs We have a whole bunch of TVs going on and we're all watching the hearing which hearing is this this is the finance here finance Okay, have a seat right here. You have a seat. No you sit there and I'll sit here you sit here Okay, this way how's that yeah, and then you can catch us in that corner does it yeah have a seat This is feel more of a homely interface. Yes. Yes. Well, you are home Now That decking their words in the in your calendar It says such and such a date the bill is decked and then there's a There's a crossover date and then there's all of these Various dates in your calendar. What what is all of that? Well, those are Deadlines the the session. There's the session is 60 days But that's actually actual hearing days. So I'm not hearing days. That's actual sessions where we go on the floor But within like right now we have a five-day recess But as you can see this is when all the hearings are going on because there's no session So it's actually very busy during the recess time and the terms like decking and crossover when Or lateral there's all these technical terms That is basically used within the house that give deadlines for when bills need to move or A process so many times we call we will say a bill is dead That means it didn't reach a certain milestone by a certain day so So if it's dead it didn't get a lateral or yes, it if it's so First crossover when the bills first go from one house goes to the other house So if the bill doesn't make it over to the other the other chamber, then the bill is dead You can't you got to wait till the next session to bring it back So that's what so it didn't meet this year's deadline So then that's what we call the bills that you There's ways to bring it back But a lot of times we'll just wait for the Senate version to come back and we'll work on the Senate version So So that's this week, huh? that the Cross over Yes, it's I think next Tuesday is our big big session day when all the bills When there's about 200 bills that will be going over to the Senate chamber and the Senate will be tossing over their Bills to our chamber How many bills do you did you have this year total on average? We have about 2,000 bills that are introduced so it's just people it's virtually impossible to read every single bill So people will be calling me about a certain bill that I have no idea about And I usually just wait till it gets in front of me before I start to read it Yeah, well that's how do you so and how do you when the bill is introduced with all these 2,000 bills How do you separate who goes where and what and all that kind of stuff? How does that happen that? That's the that's the referral process when The leadership there's a group. There's a leadership group that will read through the bills and say this Based upon the subject matter. This should go to this committee then that committee and Like a b and c committee. It's usually two to three referrals And it may so the bill for example, it'll go like two to five that we used earlier So that it's a bill relating to transportation. So they went to the transportation committee and the judiciary committee and So Those are what we call a double referral double referral. That's correct Double referral is when a single referral is when it only goes to one committee Double is when it goes to two and then triple referral is when it goes to three and I've seen quadruple referral Which makes it virtually impossible to get through the whole deadline. So it's dead on arrival. DOA Oh, so that was set up to die. Yes, or sometimes they make it so it's very difficult there There's also a thing called joint committees Where you have two separate committees come together to hear one bill And it's very difficult to get that many legislators in at the same time Because they're most we're all running around in different Different hearings going back and forth. So it's hard to get everybody into the same room at one time Now who determines when a bill is going to be heard? Is that the chair of the the chair of the committee? So they've already looked at all of the bills and said we will hear this and this and this is that Yes, that's correct. So the chair what the chair usually does is All the chairs the the bills that are referred to that chairs committee They they read through all the bills and say, okay, we're here this this this this And they'll put that they call it on the agenda the the hearing agenda And then that's how the process gets started usually each committee has about three days so the Three maybe four days of hearings. So that's when the chair decides which Which bills he's going to put on his hearing notice And then once the notice is up, how long before the hearing happens? The it's technically 48 hours. Wow So that's really fast to get your testimony in and everything. Yeah, so Uh, that's that's correct. It's 48 hours What? Now it's a lot more convenient because we have the internet so people can follow Back 20 30 years ago before the internet Everything was posted downstairs. So if you walk around the building You can see the clipboards on the walls and that was remnants of 30 years ago when that when The term post the hearing notice. That's what it meant They actually went there and posted it on the wall or on the agenda board So yeah, you guys should go in there and take a picture of that Yes, we'll go take a look. This is what it is. Yes, this is how the process was But now people can look at the agenda at home and follow what's going on Yeah, and then Okay, so if this is my bill Then i'm gonna dog you to make sure that you a hear it and b pass it. Is that how that works? Yes, so a lot of times people will come and they lobby or they come and talk to their um the legislators or the chairs and they To have a bill heard and get pushed through the process That's a lot of work boy. It is it is it's a lot of work in a very short period of time Is there a way to lengthen the time of the the session? It seems like a lot 2000 bills in just four months. Well 2000 bills, it's more. Yeah, it's more like five months. Yeah from january for every march april may So Well, yeah, this year it's the last it's the first week of may but uh Yeah, there's always talk about lengthening the session because but most of the bills die anyway So every year there's there's about 2000 bills that die and about 200 bills that actually become law So now this is a biannual. Is that what this is called? And how does that work this session? It's a it's one session technically is two years. So The bills that are introduced this year can be heard next year. They're still alive technically until next session So it's we go through a budgetary cycle for two Two years. So we they're crafting They're crafting the budget for this year and for next and when we come into session again next year We're revising the budget that they created this year Now i'm going to ask you about the budget if that's okay with you Be given what we're going through nationally with all of this fuss about Getting rid of obama care What does that do to the state budget? Obama or do you know obama care really doesn't have that much effect on the state budget what really Had effect on the state budget was the secrecy sequestration that you remember when congress about four or five years ago They were doing this push That really when i was sitting on finance that you could see that in the the effects of that within the state budget because positions that positions or programs that were Previously federal funded no longer had Federal funds attached to it. So we either had to abolish the program or fund it through state funds Well now where medicaid Uh is attached to obama care But that money is for the state Where you know you got a hundred percent from the feds to medicaid So if if they get rid of that what happens? Oh, yeah expansion you're right expansion of expansion of medicaid was very big for was a was big for um Not just our state our state was kind of small, but other states were huge The expansion portion i believe The states had to come up with their temp was a ten percent match I think it was a ten percent match, but some states they're you're talking It was in the hundreds of millions of dollars and Our state since we're night roughly 90 90 to 95 percent covered for medical coverage Our state wasn't impact that greatly whereas other states like in the south alabama i think it is the The medical coverage they only have 50 percent medical coverage. So when obama Obamacare came in and expansion of medicaid it really Impacted those states, but it was a big benefit for the people that were uninsured Well listen sweetheart. Thank you for spending this much time with us trying to get you to spend time impossible