A US federal judge on Monday ordered Hawaii’s government to restore lifesaving health benefits to low-income legal migrants from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, a ruling that will cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
US District Judge J. Michael Seabright issued a preliminary injunction requiring that more than 7,500 Pacific Islanders receive health coverage equal to plans provided to recipients of Medicaid.
The state had tried to save about US$8 million annually by offering fewer benefits under a free plan called Basic Health Hawaii that went into effect July 1, but Seabright’s ruling ends that effort.
Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau are beneficiaries of the Compact of Free Association, a 1986 pact with the US granting it the right to use defense sites in exchange for financial assistance and migration rights.
“Plaintiffs will suffer irreparable harm without a preliminary injunction because they would be left without adequate medical coverage, which will force them to pay for treatment on their own or completely forego the treatment,” Seabright wrote in his order.
The lawsuit claiming Basic Health Hawaii unlawfully discriminates against the migrants would likely be successful, Seabright wrote.
Migrants’ health coverage was limited to 10 days of inpatient hospital care each year, 12 annual outpatient visits and a maximum of four medication prescriptions per month under Basic Health Hawaii.
Those constraints fell short of the care needed by many cancer and kidney disease patients, Seabright wrote.
Lawyers for the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office said they may appeal.
Deputy Attorney General Lee-Ann Brewer said the government argued that migrants’ benefits could be reduced because they weren’t eligible for federal Medicaid services.
Hawaii’s government spends more than US$120 million a year on services for the migrants, and the federal government provides only US$11 million to help cover the costs, according to the state Department of Human Services.
Seabright said the state is paying most of the cost of a federal obligation.
“Everyone here would rather see this cost spread around the entire nation than just the state of Hawaii,” Seabright said in court.
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