COFA Citizens Get Break On Healthcare.gov
Hawaii Gov. David Ige announced a deal between the state and the federal government that will give residents from Compact of Free Association nations more time to enroll.
Hawaii residents from Compact of Free Association nations have until mid-February to sign up for health care coverage through , thanks to a special enrollment period negotiated for that community by the State of Hawaii, Gov. David Ige announced Thursday.
Citizens from the Compact nations — the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau — have struggled to overcome barriers to enrollment, principally the lack of interpreter services at the call center appropriate for their language needs. An outreach team in the state Department of Human Services is working with community organizations to walk individuals through enrollment, but the process is painstaking and has taken longer than anticipated.
Hawaii insurers participating in the state’s health insurance plans will make coverage retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016, for anyone who signs up during the special enrollment period in the new year.
“When people have access to affordable health care coverage, their health outcomes are more positive, and our four decades of experience with Hawaii’s Prepaid Health Care Act of 1974 have shown us that,” said Ige in a written statement. “We appreciate the federal government’s understanding of the special circumstances our residents from Compact nations face when seeking health care services in Hawaii.”
Newly released data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services shows that in 2015 the Hawaii Health Connector, which recently transferred its responsibilities to the state and closed operations, enrolled 16,803 individuals. But enrollments for 2016 are so far running 4,300 behind this year’s total, in part because of the difficulty in enrolling Compact nation citizens.
Individuals from the Compact nations often face severe health challenges, due in no small part to the history of nuclear bomb testing around those islands and of Western cultural dietary influences. Cancer and diabetes rates are high, for instance, among residents from Micronesia, as Civil Beat reported earlier this year in the seven-part series, The Micronesians.
for more information on the special enrollment period.
