Native Americans and Alaska Natives are exempt from the Medicaid work requirements that take effect in January in 43 states and the District of Columbia. Native Hawaiians are not, an omission documented this month in reporting by KFF Health News and Honolulu Civil Beat.
Hawaii's Medicaid administrator, Meredith Nichols, said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not respond to the state's request to add an exemption for Native Hawaiians. She attributed the outcome to the population's lack of recognition as a tribal nation, saying that when the state has asked similar questions in the past, "it all comes down to federal recognition."
