Medicaid eligibility restored to Pacific Islanders

Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands was used to test nuclear bombs.

In the $900 billion coronavirus relief bill signed by Donald Trump last week  includes a provision to restore  Medicaid eligibility for an estimated 100,000 citizens of the Freely Associated States — the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau who live in the United States and its territories.

Since the 1980s, the three nations have been under the Compacts of Free Association (COFA), a series of treaties that established the U.S.'s exclusive military use rights in them, including using their islands to test nuclear testing sites.

Twenty-four years, President Bill Clinton signed a welfare bill removed the Marshallese and other nations of medical coverage. Experts say it was an injustice that had long been ignored.

"For over 25 years, we have suffered because of health inequity," said Melisa Laelan, Executive Director of Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese (ACOM). "The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the gruesome health injustices that we COFA communities recognized, but the rest of the world ignored."

In exchange for allowing the U.S. test bombs on the islands and give the U.S. access in the Asia-Pacific region, citizens of COFA nations were allowed to live, work and study in the mainland and reside in U.S. terretories. The Pacific Islanders are considered "legal nonimmigrants," who also pay U.S. taxes and had been promised medical care.

The U.S. bumps it's nuclear waste  (domed circle) in the Pacific Island nations.

"Many of our folks came here to not only seek medical care, but also employment and educational opportunities for our families. We are not a rich nation, and we come here to look for the American dream," said Eldon Alik, consul general of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. "Just like everybody else, we pay all the taxes that are required. So it is just right that we get Medicaid also."

For about a decade during the Cold War, the U.S. detonated 67 nuclear bombs in and around the Marshall Islands, according to NBC News. The U.S. also dumped 130 tons of soil from an irradiated Nevada testing site onto the Enewetak Atoll, part of the nation.

"This is a group of people who sacrificed much, and in fact their countries [play] a big part of our national security, especially in the Indo-Asia Pacific region," said Hawaii's Sen. Mazie Hirono, who championed the measure. "They certainly deserve this kind of coverage, which never should have been taken away."