Sen. Dorgan: Indian health care an embarrassment

Friday, December 7, 2007  

"Why is Native health care not simply an indistinguishable component of the overall health care system? Because our country has an affirmative trust obligation toward American Indians. That obligation is grounded in numerous treaties and, more generally, in the moral responsibility for the negative impact over generations of changing federal policies.

The great Chief Justice John Marshall, in the 1831 decision of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, recognized that the United States had a unique trustee relationship toward Indian tribes.

Statistics highlight the desperate condition of American Indian health care. Compared to the U.S. population as a whole, Natives have a 600 percent higher incidence of tuberculosis, a 189 percent higher incidence of diabetes and a 510 percent higher incidence of alcoholism. Suicides on reservations in the northern Great Plains are 10 times higher than the national average.

To improve the performance of the United States as trustee for the health care of American Indians, more funding and continuous innovation are needed. For 2005, the per capita federal health expenditure by the IHS was $2,130. By the way, that's about one-half the per capita spending for federal prisoners' health care, and it was far below the estimated per capita benchmarks of Medicare at $6,784 and the Veterans Administration at $4,653. It means we have full-scale ''health care rationing'' for American Indians, and it has to stop. We need to meet our obligations."

Get the Story:
Dorgan: American Indian health care a national embarrassment (Indian Country Today 12/7)

House Energy and Commerce Committee Documents:
Summary | Manager's Amendment | Press Release | Webcast

Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments:
S.1200 | H.R.1328

Relevant Documents:
Letter to President Bush | Letter to Alberto Gonzales | DOJ White Paper

Relevant Links:
Indian Health Service - http://www.ihs.gov
National Indian Health Board - http://www.nihb.org

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