Senate and House Committes fail to agree to let couple aged 94 and 88 live in same care home

Mr. and Mrs. Noboru Kawamoto, a couple aged 93 and 88, who are not allowed, for various complicated bureaucratic reasons, to live in the same private-pay care home.

In 2009, Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle signed House Bill 600 into law that allowed another elderly couple, the Kaides, to reside in the same care home under a two-year demonstration project. The law lapsed after reaching its sunset date in 2011. A measure to allow House Bill 600 has just failed to clear the conference committee and is dead for this year. The Kawamotos will be forced to live separate and apart until the Health Department comes up with rules to govern this cruel anomaly. How can government justify keeping a couple who have been married for 67 years apart?

Noboru Kawamoto is a veteran of the 100th Battalion, 442 Regimental Combat team. How can he be treated like this! Please request Hawaii Governor Ige to step in here and correct this.