Think Out Loud

COFA islanders are now eligible for Medicaid

By Julie Sabatier (OPB)
March 26, 2021 12:41 a.m.

Broadcast: Friday, March 26

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After a 25-year struggle, citizens of the Compact of Free Association nations living in the United States had their Medicaid eligibility restored by Congress at the end of 2020. COFA islanders, who are from the Marshall Islands, Palau and Micronesia, have a unique relationship with the United States that began in 1986, but they lost access to Medicaid in 1996 and advocates have been working to restore eligibility ever since.

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We talk with David Anitok and Kara Miller of COFA Alliance National Network about what this change means for COFA islanders living in Oregon.

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