Some Micronesians and non-U.S. citizens who faced losing critical health care in Hawaii learned on Monday that they would be given help.
The state plans to limit health coverage starting Sept. 1, for about 7,000 migrants including those from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau. Those migrants are beneficiaries of the Compacts of Free Association with the federal government.
However, the state will be reimbursed by the federal government for 100 kidney dialysis patients. The state is using a 2007 consent decree in Arizona for federal funding to pay for dialysis as an emergency service. The state hopes to collect $3 million to pay for the next two years.
"By identifying this federal funding source, COFA migrants and other legal aliens can now receive kidney dialysis without straining the financial resources of health providers or Hawaii taxpayers," Department of Human Services Director Lillian Koller said.
When translators explained the news, people applauded, but they are worried about the long-term.
"I would like to see a permanent solution, not just two years. I'm terribly sad that we're only talking about at least two years. That's a dagger in the heart," advocate for Marshallese patients William Swain said.
They are also concerned about another 100 or so cancer patients, because now name-brand chemotherapy drugs will not be covered by the state, only generic drugs. The state said hospitals will cover the costs of anyone who cannot pay.
"For those patients who currently receive their chemotherapy because they're in a hospitalized situation, they will continue to receive the treatments, as they do today," Gov. Linda Lingle's senior advisor, Linda Smith, said.
The state said it does not have tens of millions of dollars to keep covering these people when the federal government pledged to take care of them decades ago. The governor said the federal government should pay for health coverage for Micronesians and others who are covered by the Compacts of Free Association, because the U.S. government conducted nuclear bomb tests there in the 1940s and 1950s.
"The legacy of your nation with us has been destruction, benign neglect and indoctrination. Our boys are fighting the war in Iraq, are we going to tell them, my nephew that I cannot get service?" said Masae Kintaro, of Micronesian United.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie has proposed an amendment to offer Medicaid coverage to legal migrants from Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands for the first time. That could help solve the problem in the long run, if Congress approves the change.
The new Basic Health Hawaii program starts Tuesday, and it limits the health coverage to migrant patients. However, it does not affect low-income pregnant women or children.
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