Tribal health care changes promised
BY CHRIS CASTEEL
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Published: October 21, 2009
WASHINGTON — Acknowledging that improvements in American Indian health care are long overdue, a New Jersey congressman said Tuesday that the plan is to make them part of the broader health legislation moving through Congress.
Indian groups and lawmakers have been trying to renew the law that governs health care in Indian country, but the process has always broken down.
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said during a
Capitol Hill hearing that he wants to include
Indian Health Service improvements in the health care bill moving toward a House vote, rather than waiting for Congress to act on separate legislation.
The long delay in renewing the law hasn’t kept the Indian Health Service from operating — and renewing it doesn’t mean Americans Indians will instantly get better care — but the inaction has been frustrating to tribes and American Indian health care experts.
Chickasaw Nation Lt. Gov. Jefferson Keel, president-elect of the National Congress of American Indians, said at the hearing Indians have been working for 10 years to renew the law with changes that would modernize treatment for patients.
The Indian Health Service is funded through the
Department of Health and Human Services and is charged with providing care to Americans Indians. Tribes run clinics with Indian Health Service funding, along with reimbursements from
Medicaid,
Medicare and insurers.
Still, nearly all involved agree the health service is chronically underfunded and ill-equipped to deal with a population that suffers from much higher than normal incidences of diabetes, tuberculosis, alcoholism, infant mortality and suicide.
"Less is spent on providing health care to American Indians per capita than any other sub-population,” Pallone said. "In fact, we spend more to provide health care to federal inmates than we do for American Indians.”
Yvette Roubideaux, director of the Indian Health Service, said
President Barack Obama had proposed the largest increase in funding in 20 years for the agency. Though more money won’t solve all the problems, she said, it would help.
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Domestic Policy,
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U.S. Congressional News,
Native American Issues,
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Health Care Issues,
Paying for Health Care
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