The originally passed House of Representatives health care bill included a provision to restore Medicaid coverage to all citizens of the Marshall Islands, Federated States and Palau living in the U.S. But last Sunday, the House passed the Senate version of the legislation that did not include this provision, an official at the Marshall Islands Embassy in Washington said.
Until 1996, when the U.S. Congress cut the benefit, islanders from these three western Pacific nations that have “Compacts of Free Association” with Washington, were eligible for Medicaid health coverage. There have been increasingly vocal calls from legislators in states with large populations of Micronesians for the U.S. federal government to cover the costs of health care services for islanders.
Lobbying efforts by the Marshall Islands in the Senate to get the Medicaid provision included in the Senate version of the health care bill were unsuccessful, said the official at the Marshall Islands Embassy
“Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, the current chair for the House Resources Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, is looking into other means to restore this eligibility as it also impacts Guam,” said the official. “Also, Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka (Hawaii), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas), and Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico) have expressed that this is a priority for them as well, and they will figure out a way to get this through.”
Meanwhile, the Hawaii State House of Representatives is considering Resolution 25 that calls for the U.S. Interior Department and the U.S. Congress to provide additional federal aid to Hawaii to provide services to migrants from Compact nations.
The resolution also calls for the U.S. Congress to make citizens from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands eligible for federal medical services, and urges the Interior Department to locate dialysis machines in these three nations. Because these services for patients with end-stage kidney complications from diabetes are not available in their home nations, islanders have sought these costly medical treatments in Hawaii and other U.S. states. Islanders from these three Compact nations have visa free travel rights to the U.S.
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