Health plan faces legal challenge

Lawyers for Equal Justice is considering legal action to delay implementation Tuesday of a new state health plan key legislators say “could be a death sentence” for some residents.

Because of the state’s revenue shortage, the state Department of Human Services is transferring about 7,500 noncitizens from comprehensive medical assistance to a “Basic Health Hawaii” plan with limited benefits. Pregnant women and children are excluded.

“It’s a good plan for healthy people,” said Noda Lojkar, consul general of the government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands.

The Marshallese government, affected residents, and organizations such as the American Cancer Society Hawaiʻi Pacific Inc. are protesting the plan because life-sustaining dialysis and chemotherapy services are not covered.

“Basic Health Hawaii will become the first program in Hawaiʻi to kill individuals it is meant to help,” George Massengale, a cancer society official, said in a letter to state Rep. John Mizuno (D, Kalihi), House Human Services Committee chairman.

Mizuno and Senate Human Services Chairwoman Suzanne Chun Oakland (D, Kalihi-Liliha) have asked Gov. Linda Lingle either to grandfather in people on dialysis and chemotherapy or delay the plan for six months.

Most of those affected are migrants from Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau who have lived in Hawaiʻi less than five years and are ineligible for federal assistance. Many Filipino noncitizen residents also will be affected, said Mila Medallon-Kaahanui, health care advocate.