The short film documentary Basic Health Hawaii: Broken Spirits, Healing Souls by Keola Diaz shines a light on the struggles of COFA citizens in health care in the United States. The COFA agreement is between America, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. COFA citizens were promised education opportunities, work opportunities, and healthcare services in the states. Naturally, COFA migrants often come to Hawaii for medical treatment. To their surprise, America didn’t hold up their end of the agreement and left the COFA citizens without sufficient healthcare. Keola Diaz emphasizes the mistreatment and unfair healthcare services COFA citizens receive. Initially, COFA citizens were under Medicaid …show more content…
Diaz uses multiple personal accounts and interviews to help bring awareness to the issue of insufficient healthcare services. For example, a man named Paul Echikar is from Chuuk State and came to Hawaii to get treatment for his dialysis. At first, Echikar traveled to the States because they took good care of patients and had medical services Chuuk didn’t have. After Medicaid was taken from him, his eleven medications were limited to four, and the services he was promised were not given to him and he couldn’t receive the treatment he needed for his dialysis. Echikar’s case isn’t the only one where inadequate treatment was provided. Innocenta Sound-Kikku with the Micronesian Community Network shares her frustration with the healthcare provided to COFA migrants. She tells a heart-gripping perspective that Basic Health Hawaii is devastating for families because the services are poor. Families cannot afford it, and the lack of medical services instills fear into families and the community. Innocenta feels that she is automatically planning a funeral for her father because he cannot receive the treatment he requires to