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On January 13, 2020, Micronesia community leaders from across the country hosted a virtual conference to celebrate and discuss next steps in the restoration of Medicaid access for COFA citizens. Hosted by Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese and Kaselel Counseling & Consultation, panelists from We Are Oceania, Utah Marshallese Association and the COFA Alliance National Network spoke to their roles in advocating for healthcare access. We also heard from Marshallese community leaders in Iowa and Oklahoma as well. FSM Consul General Joe Enlet emphasized that though COFA citizens may not have much voting power in the United States it is because of Micronesia that America has come to dominate in the Pacific. He credited bipartisan relationship building for the success in getting state health care in Washington and Oregon who ultimately decided that “their tax dollars are well spent if they are spent on COFA citizens.”
Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (or CARES Act) in March 2020 providing pandemic unemployment assistance, pandemic SNAP benefits for students who receive free and reduced meals at school, and stimulus payments of up to $1200. The proposed Heroes Act included an amendment to the 1996 Welfare Reform Act that left out COFA-residents from access to federal Medicare and Medicaid programs. While the Heroes Act passed in the House on May 15, 2020, the bill was soon eclipsed by nationwide protests following the death of George Floyd on May 25 of that year. The bill never passed in the Senate. As the pandemic continued, the cost of inequitable health care become evident in different demographic groups, such as the Navajo Nation and the Marshallese community centered in Northwest Arkansas. To date, there have been 24 million recorded cases of COVID-19 in the United States and nearly 400,000 deaths.
On December 21, 2020, Congress passed a second COVID Relief Bill with overwhelming bipartisan support — 359-53 in the House of Representatives and 92-6 in the Senate. The COVID Relief Deal included a significant Medicaid fix to restore coverage to COFA-residents, who had access to Medicaid benefits through the Compact of Free Association before Welfare reform in 1996. Sen. Hirono (D-HI) and her Hawaiian colleagues have been fighting to get this amended for the last 25 years and with increasing bipartisan support of senators and representatives like Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark) they have finally succeeded in correcting this wrong.
President Trump waited to sign the COVID Relief Deal in order to get a promise from Congress to consider increasing individual stimulus payments by an additional $1400 for a total of $2000. Though the House already voted to increase stimulus payments, Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said that the Senate would not reconvene to vote on the legislation until the next term. Last week President-elect Joe Biden proposed a $1.9 trillion relief package that will continue the initiative to provide direct aid through stimulus payments as well as an additional $20 billion for vaccinations and $50 billion more for coronavirus testing. This relief proposal will then have to be taken up by Congress where it will be subject to changes and compromises necessary to pass the bill in both the House and the Senate. Best case scenario, further relief could be approved by late February. However, the Senate will also be voting on the President-elect’s Cabinet nominees and ruling on the impeachment trial of President Trump for the violence at the Capitol that occurred on January 6. Stimulus payments and proposals for an increased minimum wage, expanding healthcare premium subsidies and broadening tax credits might also be sticking points for bipartisan support needed to pass another relief bill.