Surveys Seek Health Status of Marshallese in Arkansas

Marshallese Health Survey Results Released--New Marshallese Clinic Funded - AUDIO: Jacqueline Froelich reports on the unique health challenges islanders face and how the survey and clinic will help.

House Health Bill Would Help Pacific Island Migrants NPR's AUDIO & TRANSCRIPT - Marshallese are contributing to the American economy by working and paying taxes and should have the same access to government programs as other legal immigrants.

Survey probes Ark. Marshallese attitudes on health - relied on self-assessment from its 1,096 participants and may not have done the best job of addressing cultural differences.

Health survey points to needs Funds sought for Marshallese - Congressman Boozman is opposed to opening up Medicaid, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, DArk., signed onto a letter asking that a provision that would restore Medicaid eligibility

Arkansas: Guam's Unlikely Ally In The Push For Micronesian Healthcare Reform - Springdale finds itself in the same boat as Guam and Hawaii.

Workshop tackles immigrant issues - Ito social workers about the information critical to understanding the Marshallese and Hispanic communities in the United States

Immigrants Left Behind By Health Care Reform - 6,000 Marshall Island migrants wonder if health reform could spell the end of their health care limbo.

Marshall Islanders: Health Care Reform Survivors? - While the House bill could deliver marginal relief to the Marshallese and other Pacific Islanders, it leaves us with an even starker picture of how medical apartheid works in America.

CLINIC: A coalition of health care providers has produced the first ever health survey of Marshall Islanders living in Northwest Arkansas. And U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln has secured nearly a quarter million dollars in federal Health and Human Services funding to start up a Marshallese clinic.

SURVEY: The advocates witnessed a first step last week, as state Health Department officials presented partial results from the largest-ever local health poll of Marshallese residents.For more than a decade after the Marshall Islands came under U.S. control in World War II, it was the site of nuclear-weapons testing. Because of this, the two forged an unusual diplomatic relationship called the Compact of Free Association.It provides special privileges for the islanders to live and work in the United States without visas but doesn't give access to Medicaid and other federal health programs, even when the islanders support them through payroll taxes.On Wednesday, the survey takers acknowledged the health survey had its limits. Several in the audience when the results were presented said they thought it underestimated the health problems of Arkansas' Marshallese community, who for the most part live in Springdale."It's very different to talk to the Marshallese, who are a very private people, and who have different mores than we do," said Kathy Grisham, executive director of the Community Clinic at St. Francis House.Still, the survey did what it was supposed to do, its producers said: Provide a picture of the population's health attitudes, behaviors and beliefs that could serve as a baseline for later studies.

HEALTH CARE BILL: Years ago, they were eligible for immediate coverage under Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor, but that benefit was revoked in 1996 as part of welfare reform. The result is they aren't eligible for Medicaid — even after the five-year waiting period that applies to most other immigrants. That's unfair, say advocates who argue that the Marshallese are contributing to the American economy by working and paying taxes and should have the same access to government programs as other legal immigrants. "It's like going to a party and you're bringing your potluck dish of rice and fried chicken and fried fish, but you're not eating anything," said Marshallese Consul General Carmen Chong.Now, the health care legislation being debated in Congress might provide some relief. Under the House bill, a little-noticed provision sponsored by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawaii, would restore the migrants' eligibility for immediate Medicaid coverage. The Senate bill doesn't have a similar provision.

ALLY:Guam and Hawaii are not the only U.S. jurisdictions hoping for more federal options to support health care for migrants from the freely associated states.Community clinics in Springdale, Arkansas, are awaiting the final version of the president's controversial health care reforms and looking at the restoration of Medicaid privileges to citizens of the freely associated states, according to an article produced by Kaiser Health Care News and NPR.Springdale finds itself in the same boat as Guam and Hawaii which have struggled for years to help meet the healthcare needs of migrants from Micronesia.

WORKSHOP: While it might be tempting to turn to the children of immigrants to translate for their parents who don’t speak English, it’s best not to put children in such an adult role, social workers heard Friday.UA-Fayetteville faculty members Christy-McMullin and Kim Stauss developed the three-hour workshop,entitled “Latina/Latino and Marshallese Communities in the U.S.

IMMIGRANTS:: And in Arkansas, 6,000 Marshall Island migrants wonder if health reform could spell the end of their health care limbo. The Marshallese are free to travel and work in the U.S., but many hold low-paying jobs and remain uninsured. They used to be eligible for Medicaid coverage but welfare reform in 1996 erased that benefit. Now they can’t apply even after the five-year waiting period customary for most legal immigrants.I hope you’ll find these stories, as I did, grim reminders that the health care reform bills do nothing for the plight of undocumented immigrants. Or in the Marshall Islanders’ situation, legal migrant workers on the wrong side of legislation. Without some help, they have no recourse but to visit overburdened emergency rooms. For kidney dialysis patients, this means playing Russian roulette with their lives — they can only be treated in an ER if they’re in medically dire straits. Going without regular dialysis treatments can prove fatal in as little as two weeks for end-stage kidney disease.

So if they have any medical coverage at all, it's often payback for labor in a noxious, often hazardous industry.While the House bill could deliver marginal relief to the Marshallese and other Pacific Islanders, it leaves us with an even starker picture of how medical apartheid works in America. In an interview with NPR, Mark Krikorian of the xenophobic think tank Center for Immigration Studies used the crisis facing the Marshallese to trumpet his usual line: "mass immigration is incompatible with a modern society." One wonders if a system that pushes people to die needlessly in emergency rooms is somehow more compatible. So we're back where we started. Depending on the quirks of Washington's foreign policy, the legacy of American imperialism can be a boon or a blow to immigrants' health.