SPRINGDALE -- Thousands of Marshallese and other Pacific Islander children would become eligible for Medicaid with no cost to the state if a resolution filed Monday leads to a change in Arkansas policy, supporters say.
State Rep. Jeff Williams and State Sen. Lance Eads, both Republicans from Springdale, filed a resolution "to encourage" Gov. Asa Hutchinson to ask the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to allow the change. Any tweaks to Arkansas' Medicaid programs for children, pregnant women and other low-income adults must get federal approval first.
About 2,000 children among the roughly 12,000 islanders in Northwest Arkansas would become eligible if the change goes through, according to a 2013 report from Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families.
"For so long in Arkansas, we've just had people kind of throw up their hands and say, 'This is a federal issue, there's nothing we can do about this,'" said Laura Kellams, Northwest Arkansas director for the advocates group. "It's the right thing to do in Arkansas, and we have the option to do it, so we should."
The change also would partly address an issue Pacific Islander groups have been trying to fix for two decades in Congress and individual states. Melisa Laelan, founder of the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese, said she was excited but would hold off celebrating until the change happens.
"I do see the light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "I'm not going to start screaming and do the happy dance until we know for sure."
Eads and Williams didn't return cellphone messages requesting comment Monday afternoon. Hutchinson's spokesman also didn't return an email request.
The U.S. detonated dozens of nuclear devices in the Marshall Islands following World War II, and lingering radiation and poverty help cause exceptionally high rates of cancer, diabetes and other ailments among Marshallese today. Laelan said dental care and school exams also are common needs for children.
Marshallese and other Pacific Islanders can live and work without visas throughout the United States under a 1980s treaty, and until 1996 they could tap into Medicaid for help. Congress that year took away their federal eligibility in what many Pacific Islanders see as an accidental but lasting oversight.
Individual states can add the group back, and 31 have done so at least partially, according to the resolution.
The federal government would cover the entire cost of the addition, thanks to a 2009 law that allows children who aren't citizens or immigrants, like the Marshallese, to get benefits, Kellams said. That cost for the newly added Pacific Islander children could be around $6 million based on average claims in fiscal 2016 for the more than 500,000 children enrolled in ARKids First and other Medicaid programs.
ARKids helps cover dental care, immunizations and other medical care for children whose families are at or below about twice the federal poverty line. The cutoff comes to about $50,000 a year in income for a family of four. Pacific Islander households in Northwest Arkansas, which often include extended family members, have a median income of about $31,000, according to census estimates.
The 2009 law doesn't allow federal funding for low-income Marshallese adults, which only Congress can change.
Marshallese can buy insurance with subsidies on the state exchange but aren't eligible for Arkansas Works, the state program that uses Medicaid money from the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, to purchase private health insurance for hundreds of thousands of low-income Arkansans. High deductibles on the exchange's plans often keep basic care out of reach, Laelan and others in the coalition have said.
The federal children's coverage could make the resolution easier to accept in a state where the governor and many legislators have said they want to roll Medicaid back because of the number of recipients.
"We're optimistic because this is as close as we've ever gotten in Arkansas," Kellams said.
Earlier this year Laelan jokingly said she could retire from advocacy if Marshallese children can enroll in ARKids.
"That would be the day," she said. "I think I'm going to disconnect my phone."
NW News on 03/07/2017