Ka`u News Briefs Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015

HAWAIIAN TELCOM RESTORED SERVICE to customers from Pahala to Waikoloa who could not make phone calls or access the Internet for nearly 6.5 hours yesterday. At about 1 p.m., alarms triggered in Hawaiian Telcom’s 24/7 Network Operations Center, indicating a service issue in Kona. Upon further investigation, a fiber break was discovered on Mamalahoa Highway near the intersection to Daniel K. Inouye Hwy. A contractor transporting a grader snagged and severed a 36-strand fiber cable.

      The outage affected approximately 20,000 phone and 5,500 Internet customers, Corporate Communications Executive Director Su Shin reported. Some wireless carriers were also impacted.
      Hawaiian Telcom teams from both Hilo and Kona engaged in a restoration plan that required placing more than 500 feet of cable and 72 individual splices.
      Technicians completed splicing cable and restored all services to impacted customers just before 7:30 p.m.
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HAWAI`I’S SENATE HEALTH COMMITTEE has advanced a bill that would help Ka`u’s Marshallese community pay for health care. Ka`u’s Sens. Josh Green and Russell Ruderman were two introducers of SB 1327 in response to new state rules that eliminate Medicaid coverage for low-income people who aren’t citizens. 

      Due to federal welfare reform in 1996, certain noncitizens, though lawfully present in the United States, were made ineligible for Medicaid. This ineligibility standard covers Hawai`i residents who are present in the state under respective Compacts of Free Association that the United States has with the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands and Republic of Palau.
      The state recently decided to end Medicaid coverage for most of these migrants and to enroll them in health insurance through Hawai`i Health Connector. This switch means that the federal government, and not the state, will primarily cover the costs of health insurance, saving the state an estimated $27,000,000 per year.
      SB 1327 requires the state to pay costs, including premiums, copays and deductibles, assessed on low-income Compacts of Free Association residents and other lawfully present legal permanent residents who receive health care through Hawai`i Health Connector and would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid except for their citizenship status. It also requires the Department of Human Services to engage in community outreach.
      According to an Associated Press story in West Hawai`i Today by Cathy Bussewitz, Ka`u’s Sen. Josh Green, M.D., chair of the Senate Health Committee, said, “I’ve known for a long time how important it is to provide this care. This is an important piece of legislation because we already have a commitment to those individuals from the compact free states to take care of them. Period.”
      Under current emergency rules, noncitizens who are not aged, blind or disabled and who are currently receiving state-funded medical assistance will continue to receive this assistance through Feb. 28.
      To avoid a gap in coverage and obtain health insurance beginning March 1, those people are required to choose a health plan through Hawai`i Health Connector by Feb. 15.

      For more information and to provide testimony, see capitol.hawaii.gov.

      See westhawaiitoday.com.
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