Attorney General David Louie said today that the state will continue to provide benefits to Compact of Free Association residents “until a full and final resolution of the issues in Korab v. McManaman is reached.”

“The state will make sure that COFA residents continue to have uninterrupted access to their health benefits while this lawsuit is pending,” Louie said in a press release.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that when Congress enacted the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 and eliminated federal funding for health benefits for COFA residents, Hawaii “could not be mandated to fund the federal government’s portion of the benefits,” as the AG put it. 

An attorney for the plaintiffs says his clients will appeal the ruling. Read Civil Beat’s Court: Hawaii Doesn’t Have to Give Micronesians Health Care.

Photo: A Chuukese woman in Kalihi. (Nathan Eagle/Civil Beat)

—Chad Blair