Congress Restores Medicaid to Arkansas Marshallese, Other Pacific Island Migrants

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.