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."

AAPI oppose Obamacare critic as head of Health & Human Services

 Rep. Tom Price might become Secretary of Health & Human Services, 

DONALD TRUMP may have found his hatchet man to do away with Obamacare and render Medicare and Medicaid ineffective. Trump's choice of  Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, for Secretary of Health & Human Services has drawn sharp criticism from Asian/Americans. 

Price's nomination signals the President Donald Trump's determination to give private health insurance a way to fatten their bottom line while doing away with the all the major health care benefits government has developed in the last 50 years.

In other words, the incoming administration appears to be ready and willing to destroy the American health care system as we know it.

Whose health coverage will be the most affected? Millions of seniors, low-income families and children, including many of the people who voted for Trump.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice opposes the nomination of Price. As a member of Congress, Rep. Price has been one of the lead critics of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) and has repeatedly attempted to repeal or gut the ACA.

Among Price’s most dangerous proposals are limiting tax credits for the poor, privatizing Medicare, barring federal funding to Planned Parenthood, and converting Medicaid to block grants which would pretty much negate its role as a safety net program.

Price and the Republicans want Medicare to whither away. Before Medicare was enacted in 1962, a whopping 48% of seniors lacked health insurance as opposed to only 2 percent today.

Despite overwhelming approval of Medicare by the American public, Price has been consistent in his ideological opposition. "Nothing has had a greater negative effect on the delivery of health care than the federal government’s intrusion into medicine through Medicare," he said. 

Since implementation in 2010, the ACA has given 20 million previously uninsured Americans access to critical health care services. Among the ACA’s success stories is the significant increase in health insurance coverage amongst Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Repealing the ACA would likely double the uninsured rate to 19.4 percent and cost an estimated 24 million people their health coverage.

"The Asian American and Pacific Islander community has seen the greatest decrease in our uninsured rate--by 59 percent--under the ACA, the largest of any racial group nationally," said Doreena Wong, director of Advancing Justice-LA's health access program."

"And consistently, AAPIs have expressed significant support for the ACA, even across party lines -- for example, a poll in Spring 2016 found that 76 percent of Asian/American voters supported the ACA, including 60 percent of those identified as Republican. A repeal of the ACA means that hundreds of thousands of our community members stand to lose critically needed health coverage," said Wong.

Although Republicans plan to cut Medicaid — the primary program providing health care to low-income individuals , Price’s plans for Medicaid are even worse. His latest budget proposalwould have repealed Medicaid expansion entirely, without replacing it.

Eventually, Republicans would phase out Medicaid, leaving the poorest to fend for themselves.

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Trump picks South Asian to tackle Medicare and Medicai

Seema Verma

By Louis Chan
REPRINTED FROM ASAM NEWS

A CONSULTANT who worked under Vice President-elect Mike Pence to expand Medicaid in Indiana has been nominated to run the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Seema Verma is the third Asian/American to be nominated by President-elect Donald Trump. The others are South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who is Trump’s choice for Ambassador to the United Nations and Washington veteran Elaine Chao who will help the Department of Transportation.

RELATED:

• Elaine Chao picked for Secretary of Transportation
• Nikki Haley chosen as UN Ambassador

“I am pleased to nominate Seema Verma to serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,” said President-elect Trump. “She has decades of experience advising on Medicare and Medicaid policy and helping states navigate our complicated systems. Together, Chairman Price (nominated as Secretary of Health & Human Services) and Seema Verma are the dream team that will transform our healthcare system for the benefit of all Americans.”

“I am honored to be nominated by President-elect Trump,” said Verma. “I look forward to helping him tackle our nation’s daunting healthcare problems in a responsible and sustainable way.”

Verma is credited with helping Indiana implement Obamacare in 2010. Her program is said to have appealed to conservatives while meeting the requirements of the Affordable Care Act.

She, along with Price, will play a major role in either eliminating or reshaping Obamacare, one of Trump's top campaign promises.

Verma also served as Vice President of Planning for the Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County and as a Director with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) in Washington D.C. Ms. Verma received her Master’s degree in Public Health, with a concentration in health policy and management from Johns Hopkins University, and her Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences from the University of Maryland.

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