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The on-again, off-again 177
Health Program is back on, as of 5 pm last Friday.
In a last minute reprieve —
the day before the program was scheduled to shut down for
lack of funds — the RMI government promised to keep the
health program for nuclear test-affected islanders open
through September 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
About $500,000 is to be
pumped into the 177 Health Program to keep it alive, pending
the possible action of the US Congress for the next fiscal
year to extend funding to the program. This is just a small
fraction of the $2 million that the program has received
annually before the first Compact-mandated annual funding
cut off last year.
The funding will come from
the Nuclear Claims Tribunal’s investment fund, which is
close to being exhausted at about $5.8 million.
177 Health officials are
now working to develop a plan that will allow the program to
operate at the reduced level of funding.
“The Nepalese doctors will
still be on the four outer islands, and the 177 Majuro
clinic will be running at some level,” said Jack Niedenthal,
Bikini Atoll Liaison.
“At least this is the way
we left it at the meeting (Friday).”
Niedenthal said that while
he applauds the effort by the RMI and the Tribunal, he notes
that it is a sad day when the people of the four atolls have
to start competing with other RMI citizens to get the US
Congress-mandated health care that they deserve and that
they were promised 23 years ago.
“Basically, right now the
four atoll/177 Health Program stands as an unfunded mandate
from the US Congress, which is simply not tolerable for the
nuclear victims of the Marshall Islands,” said Niedenthal.
“Just because Section 177
funding for this program expired after the first Compact,
this does not mean that the mandate does not need to be
fulfilled just because it wasn’t inserted into Compact II.” |
