© 2025 KUAF
NPR Affiliate since 1985
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Join us in celebrating Ozarks at Large's 35th anniversary during our Spring Fundraiser! Click here for more information.

Congress Restores Medicaid to Arkansas Marshallese, Other Pacific Island Migrants

Courtesy
/
Mazie Hirono
U.S. Senator Marie Hirono, D-HI, has long championed restoring Medicaid to COFA migrants legally residing in the U.S.

Included in the $900 billion COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress in late December is the restoration of Medicaid to Pacific Islanders legally residing in the U.S. under a Compact of Free Association. Thousands of Arkansas Marshallese will now qualify. Medicaid was first conveyed in 1986, but mistakenly nullified a decade later during welfare reform.

Jacqueline Froelich is an investigative reporter and news producer for Ozarks at Large.
Related Content