{"id":13145,"date":"2021-06-21T17:11:36","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T21:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=13145"},"modified":"2021-06-21T17:11:37","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T21:11:37","slug":"i-wanted-to-cry-tribes-welcome-ruling-in-long-running-health-care-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2021\/06\/21\/i-wanted-to-cry-tribes-welcome-ruling-in-long-running-health-care-dispute\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I wanted to cry\u2019: Tribes welcome ruling in long-running health care dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Indianz.Com Video: Indian Country and the Affordable Care Act – National Tribal Health Conference #NTHC2020 – October 15, 2020<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
\u2018I wanted to cry\u2019: Tribes welcome ruling in long-running health care dispute<\/div>\r\n
Monday, June 21, 2021<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. — Tribal health advocates are breathing a sigh of relief after the nation’s highest court rejected another Republican challenge to the Affordable Care Act<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe landmark law, also known as the ACA, was enacted over a decade ago. It permanently reauthorized the Indian Health Care Improvement Act<\/a> (IHCIA), ensuring that tribes and their citizens can continue to receive services promised through the trust and treaty obligations of the United States.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBut a Republican-led lawsuit had tribes worried that they would have to go back to Congress all over again, leaving their communities in limbo as they battled the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>. Those fears were resolved last Thursday, when the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> finally put an end to the legal challenge<\/a>.\r\n

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SUPREME COURT WATCH Still no word on the only Indian law case left on the docket but the US Supreme Court on June 17, 2021, brought good news in another matter of interest in tribal communities. The Affordable Care Act survived yet another legal challenge in California v. Texas.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/p>\r\n\u201cThe National Indian Health Board is pleased with the Supreme Court\u2019s decision to protect the Affordable Care Act, which also secures the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, a primary legal foundation and the framework for the entire American Indian and Alaska Native health system,\u201d NIHB<\/a> Chairman William Smith said in a news release<\/a> on Friday.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n \u201cThe ACA and IHCIA offers American Indians and Alaska Natives new and viable options for health coverage, and that coverage brings peace of mind and added security of knowing that the poorly funded Indian Health Service system is bolstered. If our people need specialty care, then they can get it,\u201d added Smith, who also serves as vice president of the Valdez Native Tribe<\/a>, based in Alaska.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cIt is a giant step away from rationing health care and provides the opportunity for our people to get the care they need when they need it,\u201d Smith said, stressing the importance of the permanent reauthorization of the ICHIA.\r\n

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NIHB, representing the health interests of 574 federally recognized Tribes, applauds the US Supreme Court for upholding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in a 7-2 decision on California v. Texas that challenged the law as unconstitutional. Read the release: https:\/\/t.co\/wPYJccPP7L<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/P>\r\nThe vote in the case 7 to 2<\/a>, with even the more conservative-leaning members of the Supreme Court agreeing to turn back the GOP challenge. Justice Stephen G. Breyer<\/a> wrote the majority opinion, holding that the states lacked legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe proceed no further than standing,\u201d Breyer, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic former president Bill Clinton, wrote in the 16-page opinion<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n\u201cNeither the individual nor the state plaintiffs have shown that the injury they will suffer or have suffered is \u2018fairly traceable\u2019 to the \u2018allegedly unlawful conduct\u2019 of which they complain,\u201d Breyer continued in a decision joined by justices nominated by Democratic and Republican presidents alike.\r\n

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<\/P>\r\nBut two conservative-leaning justices — including a surprising voice — took another view of the dispute. In a dissent that was twice as long as the majority opinion, they argued that their colleagues \u201cpulled off an improbable rescue\u201d for the ACA for the third time since it became law in 2010<\/a>.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nJustice Samuel Alito<\/a>, who wrote the dissent, went so far as to compare the GOP lawsuit to a landmark treaty rights victory<\/a> secured by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe<\/a>. Since the tribe was able to pursue the matter in federal court, he reasoned that the state governments should be able to do the same.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIn other words, the bands obtained relief with the same type of argument the state plaintiffs press here,\u201d Alito argued in a dissent<\/a> joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch<\/a>, whose knowledge of Indian law is unprecedented in Supreme Court history<\/a> and who has consistently sided with tribal interests<\/a> over the last four years.\r\n

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<\/P>\r\nRepublicans have been trying to dismantle, undermine and invalidate the ACA ever since it was signed by Democratic former president Barack Obama in March 2010. GOP lawmakers tried to repeal the law in Congress but when that failed, the attorney general of Texas turned to the federal court system, lodging the case before a relatively inexperienced judge who struck down the statute as unconstitutional. \r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe same federal judge in Texas, incidentally, invalidated the Indian Child Welfare Act<\/a> in response to a lawsuit filed by the same Republican attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton. The outcome led to an extremely-lengthy and complicated set of rulings<\/a> from the same appeals court that handled the ACA case.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nBut with the health care dispute resolved by the Supreme Court, tribes and their advocates have one less controversy to worry about.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cIt was a victory 11 years ago when President Obama signed the ACA into law and this decision renews that triumph,\u201d said Stacy Bohlen, a citizen of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians<\/a> who serves as chief executive officer of the NIHB. \u201cWith this decision, the highest court secured access to health coverage for American Indian and Alaska Native people and all Americans.\u201d\r\n

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