US conservatives sue to dismantle Native Hawaiian healthcare scholarships

Conservative campaigners are targeting a decades-old federal scholarship program designed to provide Native Hawaiian students with funding to pursue healthcare careers and place practitioners in the state’s most medically under-served communities.Do No Harm, a Virginia-based advocacy group for healthcare clinicians “focused on keeping identity politics out of medical education, research, and clinical practice”, filed its federal lawsuit challenging the US health department’s Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program (NHHSP) last week.The lawsuit represents several members of Do Not Harm, including a white woman entering a nursing program in the fall and two other non-Native Hawaiian individuals who expressed interest in the scholarship, according to the suit.In a press release about the lawsuit, Do No Harm said the scholarship’s requirement that applicants be “Native Hawaiians” was a violation of federal law and tantamount to “racial discrimination”.“That this program still exists even after the efforts by this administration to course correct proves just how widespread institutional race discrimination has become,” read the release. “Our complaint challenging the Native Hawaiian Health Scholarship Program is aimed at ensuring well-deserving applicants can qualify to compete for the financial relief the scholarship provides.”Papa Ola Lōkahi, the nonprofit that administers the scholarship, said it would continue its work in spite of the legal challenge. “Efforts to dismantle programs like this ignore both the historical context and the ongoing need to safeguard equitable access to care throughout Hawaii,” said Dr Sheri Daniels, CEO of the organization. “These scholars represent the next generation of healers for our communities, a presence that uplifts the health of all.”The program was established in 1988 under the Native Hawaiian Health Care Act, which provided funding to improve healthcare outcomes for Native Hawaiians. As a part of the scholarship, recipients are required to work for at least two years in medically underprivileged communities in Hawaii.So far, the NHHSP has awarded more than 330 scholarships to applicants in 20 medical professions, according to the Papa Ola Lōkahi’s website.In an interview with the local media outlet Honolulu Civil Beat, Daniels spoke about the importance of having Native Hawaiian clinicians treating Native Hawaiians. “It makes a difference, when you can see yourself in that person in the white coat or sitting across from you in therapy, that matters,” she said.The lawsuit against NHHSP is the most recent legal case Do No Harm has brought against healthcare programs. In March, the group filed a complaint with the US health department, arguing that Corewell Health, Texas Tech and HCA Healthcare “[favored] foreign-trained physicians in their internal medicine residency programs over American-trained doctors”.Other Hawaiian educational initiatives have been targeted through legal challenges aimed at diversity programs. The Kamehameha Schools, a private school system established with the inheritance of Hawaiian princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, was specifically created to boost educational outcomes of Native Hawaiians.In October, Students for Fair Admissions, the rightwing nonprofit that brought the supreme court lawsuit that led to race-based admission being overturned, sued the school system alleging that the “admissions policy expressly prefers students with Native Hawaiian ancestry over non-Native Hawaiian students”.