Noboru Kawamoto, 94, and his wife of 67 years, Elaine, 88, will continue to live in care homes miles apart in Windward Oahu after the state Legislature was unable to pass legislation to allow them to live in the same home.
Noboru Kawamoto, who must live in a community care foster family home because of his health, pays for his care without using Medicaid. Elaine Kawamoto also pays for her care without Medicaid. They are called private-pay individuals.
The problem is that state law does not allow two private-pay individuals to live in one community care foster family home.
House Bill 600 would have allowed that to happen for two years until the Health Department came up with rules, but the measure failed to clear conference committee and is dead for this year.
Sen. Jill Tokuda, chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said House and Senate conferees were trying to find a way to resolve the issue, but an agreement could not be reached. Tokuda (D, Kailua-Kaneohe) declined to elaborate.
The Kawamotos, who attended Friday’s conference committee meeting, were devastated that the bill did not pass.
After lobbying throughout the legislative session, Noboru Kawamoto thought the measure would pass to help not only them, but other couples in the same situation.
"I thought that was a sure thing," Kawamoto said in a somber tone shortly after Friday’s meeting.
A veteran of the 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, who served in World War II, Kawamoto resides in a community care foster family home in Kane- ohe. Elaine Kawamoto lives in an adult residential care home in Punaluu.
Last fall, Noboru Kawamoto was hospitalized after he became ill with a urinary tract infection. He then suffered a stroke, leaving him weak on his right side.
Kawamoto, who has to use a wheelchair, also has polyneuropathy, a degenerative disease that affects the peripheral nerves.
His wife, who also uses a wheelchair, had suffered from congestive heart failure and a series of ailments. Their son, Norman, drives her to Kaneohe on the weekends so the couple can spend time together.
Norman Kawamoto said he too was shocked by the deferral. "I just couldn’t believe it," he said. "My dad, you could just see the hurt in his eyes."
He described how much his parents miss each other.
"Just simply being together and eating together is a joy for them," he said.
The bill is still alive in conference committee, and action possibly could be taken in the next legislative session. Under state law, only one private-pay individual and two Medicaid recipients can reside in the same community foster family home.
Sen. Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Downtown-Nuuanu-Liliha) said, "I’m hoping we can work during the interim with the departments of Health and Human Services, see if they can actually draw up rules, because that takes quite a while."
Keith Ridley, chief of the Department of Health’s Office of Health Care Assurance, which licenses long-term care facilities, said, "We’ll still continue to work with legislators as well as the Department of Human Services on how we can make this work."
Ridley said there were options such as adult residential care homes or expanded adult residential care homes that are available to couples who are private-pay individuals like the Kawamotos.
But Norman Kawamoto said his father underwent a medical evaluation in an attempt to live in the same adult residential care home as his wife and was rejected because of the level of care he needed. The care home would have to add more staff to care for Noboru Kawamoto, said his son.
The Kawamotos’ dilemma is similar to that of a couple who were forced to live apart because of the state law.
Sidney and Terry Kaide of Hawaii island lived in two separate community care foster family homes.
In April 2009, Gov. Linda Lingle signed a bill into law that allowed the Kaides to reside in the same community care foster family home under a two-year demonstration project.
The couple of 64 years lived together for seven months until Sidney Kaide died in November 2009. Terry Kaide died three years later.
The law lapsed after reaching its sunset date in 2011.
