Native America Calling: Medicaid, Medicare, health care, and food safety on the line

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Wednesday, April 9, 2025

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Medicaid, Medicare, health care, and food safety on the line

Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is overseeing an unprecedented cut of nearly a quarter of the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, drawing widespread concerns about possible adverse affects for thousands of Native Americans who depend on those services.

Everything from bill processing to testing and research to prevent lead contamination in children could be constricted. At the same time, Kennedy successfully reversed Elon Musk’s termination of 900 Indian Health Service employees by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Kennedy is also reaching out to tribes and maintaining contact through the IHS Tribal Self Governance Advisory Committee.

Join Native America Calling to look at the latest word on what some of the potential effects of the federal actions are on Native health and health care.

Press Release: Department of Health and Human Services to undergo ‘dramatic restructuring’

“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

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Guests on Native America Calling

A.C. Locklear (Lumbee), CEO of the National Indian Health Board

Kristen Bitsuie (Navajo), tribal health care outreach and education policy manager for the National Indian Health Board

Kim Russell (Navajo), policy advisor for Sage Memorial Hospital in Ganado, Arizona, operated by the Navajo Health Foundation, a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation

Native America Calling

Listen to Native America Calling every weekday at 1pm Eastern.

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