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"don't get sick after June,"

 
 
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 07:49 pm
seems to be the motto of amerinds living on reservations served by the BIA. that's when the federal dollars run out. The U.S. has an obligation, based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the government, to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations.
American Indians have an infant death rate that is 40 percent higher than the rate for whites. They are twice as likely to die from diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have a stroke, 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 20 percent more likely to have heart disease.

American Indians have disproportionately high death rates from unintentional injuries and suicide, and a high prevalence of risk factors for obesity, substance abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, teenage pregnancy, liver disease and hepatitis.

While campaigning on Indian reservations, presidential candidate Barack Obama cited this statistic: After Haiti, men on the impoverished Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere.
The office of minority health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Indian Health Service, notes on its Web site that American Indians "frequently contend with issues that prevent them from receiving quality medical care. These issues include cultural barriers, geographic isolation, inadequate sewage disposal and low income."

Indeed, Indian health clinics often are ill-equipped to deal with such high rates of disease, and poor clinics do not have enough money to focus on preventive care. The main problem is a lack of federal money. American Indian programs are not a priority for Congress, which provided the health service with $3.6 billion this budget year.
ne of the main problems is that many clinics must "buy" health care from larger medical facilities outside the health service because the clinics are not equipped to handle more serious medical conditions. The money that Congress provides for those contract health care services is rarely sufficient, forcing many clinics to make "life or limb" decisions that leave lower-priority patients out in the cold.
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Type: Discussion • Score: 5 • Views: 1,399 • Replies: 9
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edgarblythe
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 08:12 pm
A new chapter to the same old story. Not-so-benign neglect.
0 Replies
 
littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 08:24 pm
Sad statistics..... Since Obama brought it up, what's he gonna do about it?
0 Replies
 
georgeob1
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 08:43 pm
A model for the wonderful benefits of government-managed health care?
dyslexia
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 08:45 pm
@georgeob1,
as well as VA care.
littlek
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 09:01 pm
@dyslexia,
and the value of American pacts.
georgeob1
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 09:04 pm
The current rationalization is that they are going to control the unbounded growth in the cost of existing government health care systems, chiefly Medicare and Medicaid by extending government subsidized care to everyone.

Translation: In order to contain costs for existing government medical entitlement programs, government is going to take over the whoile industry and ration care for everyone.

A marvelous example of Orwellian "newspeak".
0 Replies
 
Rockhead
 
  1  
Reply Sun 14 Jun, 2009 10:02 pm
@littlek,
all of the indian treaties were written in pencil, K...
0 Replies
 
dadpad
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2009 01:50 am
No different to the plight of Australian Aboriginals.
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2009 02:04 am
@dadpad,
Yes. Sadly that's true.
0 Replies
 
 

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