"How long will the health care reform debate drag on? The Hill newspaper says “deep into December and possibly beyond by a lengthy floor debate.”

If that seems like a long time, consider that the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act has been pending since 1999.

Last week hearings were held in the U.S. House of Representatives to move that legislation forward. Again.

Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, opened hearings on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2009 by once again saying that, yes, there is a federal obligation to provide health care, and, no, the United States doesn’t deliver.

“Putting all the legal aspects aside, I think the trust responsibility can be summed up by saying that something is owned to American Indians for the lands that were both voluntarily given to the United States and forcefully taken, as well as the atrocities that were committed against their peoples,” Pallone said. “But the federal government has consistently failed to live up to this responsibility in almost every respect.”

The IHCIA would improve standards for cancer screening; authorize IHS to operate hospice, long term care and assisted living centers; upgrade epidemiology centers; create convenient care demonstration projects and integrate mental health, social services, domestic child abuse; suicide prevention and substance abuse suicide into the delivery system."

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The debate that drags on and on (Mark Trahant 10/26)

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