Six bills were presented at a session of the House of Representatives on yesterday, with two of the proposed measures relating to the CNMI\u2019s health care programs, two for tourism, and one proposed bill relating to the government\u2019s insurance program.<\/p>\n
House Bill 19-35, introduced by Rep. Ralph Yumul (Ind-Saipan), proposes to re-appropriate $157,040 allotted under an existing law, to the Medical Referral Program of the government.<\/p>\n
Yumul earlier said the re-appropriation is specifically for terminally ill patients, most of whom cannot afford their medical expenses. His proposed bill seeks to give a daily stipend of $20 per patient.<\/p>\n
Yumul is also the author of H.B. 19-36, which seeks to appropriate $4 million in payments to the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.\u2019s utility bill.<\/p>\n
According to the lawmaker, the proposed amount will help CHCC, which owes the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. more than $14 million.<\/p>\n
For tourism, Rep. Roman C. Benavente (Ind-Saipan) introduced H.B 19-38, which seeks to authorize the Division of Parks and Recreation to charge a \u201cuser fee\u201d for visitors of the \u201cGrotto,\u201d a popular tourist destination on Saipan, which features a hidden cavern with a diving and swimming spot.<\/p>\n
Benavente said this is not a \u201ctax,\u201d so local residents will be exempted to pay the fee. The proposed fee is between $3 and $5.<\/p>\n
Another tourism-related bill is H.B 19-39, introduced by Rep. Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero (Ind-Saipan). It seeks to provide tourists more entertainment options. The proposed bill seeks to allow hotels to operate non-poker electronic gaming devices.<\/p>\n
Aside from giving more choices to tourists, the proposed bill may also increase tax collections and license fees for the government, the lawmaker said.<\/p>\n
The sixth bill relates to the government\u2019s health insurance programs. Introduced by Rep. Angel Demapan (R-Saipan), H.B. 19-37 seeks to transfer the administration of the government\u2019s group health and life insurance programs to the Department of Finance.<\/p>\n
Demapan earlier said the bill will \u201chelp control the rising costs of insurance premiums.\u201d<\/p>\n
To help control premium costs, Demapan\u2019s bill would require all government employers\u2014any political subdivision, branch, instrumentality, public corporation, or autonomous board or agency of the government\u2014to participate in the government\u2019s group health and life insurance plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six bills were presented at a session of the House of Representatives on yesterday, with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[140,260,194,21],"class_list":["post-194246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-commonwealth-healthcare-corp","tag-commonwealth-utilities-corp","tag-house-bill","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194246\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}