SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) – The proposed restoration of Medicaid eligibility for Marshall Islanders living in the United States would help boost overall health in northwestern Arkansas, lawmakers, health care providers and representatives of the Marshallese community said.
“People will be able to afford the medicine I prescribe for them,” said Dr. Sheldon Riklon, a researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ northwestern Arkansas campus and a family practice doctor at Community Clinic, a nonprofit that treats low-income families, including many Marshallese.
Restoring Medicaid eligibility for Marshallese made it into the final version of the latest COVID-19 relief package, thanks largely to efforts by Pacific Islanders and their allies throughout the U.S., the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
Melisa Laelan, director of the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese, expressed relief at the pending change in the Medicaid policy but said she will be more relived when it is signed into a law.
Since the start of the pandemic, 48 Marshallese or Pacific Islanders from northwestern Arkansas have died of COVID-19, accounting for about 12% of the region’s deaths. Arkansas is home to an estimated 15,000 Marshallese, according to U.S. Census estimates.
Marshallese had been eligible for Medicaid until 1996, when a change in federal law inadvertently took away their eligibility.
“This technical fix has been a priority of mine, and Congress has finally resolved an unintended wrong,” U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, of Arkansas, said in a statement.
Womack was the first Republican to co-sponsor an earlier House bill that was incorporated into the stimulus package and paved the way for the change.
“What a great Christmas gift,” Riklon said.
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