Many Pacific Islander communities suffer from high rates of diabetes and kidney disease. Less well-known are the challenges they face in getting care.
One in five Indigenous Chamorros in the Northern Mariana Islands has diabetes, and the demand for dialysis is growing. But the only dialysis centers are on the capital island of Saipan.
Patients who hadn’t sought health care in years flocked to clinics when a temporary pandemic program expanded Medicaid access to the commonwealth’s guest worker population.