Post by blackcrowheart on Apr 29, 2006 11:01:13 GMT -5
Bush Budget Cuts Will Kill American Indians
Urban Indian health clinics are a lifeline for tribal members who live
in cities off reservations. The Bush administration has proposed to
sever that lifeline.
Bush's proposed budget would eliminate the Urban Indian Health Program,
which funds primary, preventive and behavioral health care for the 60%
of American Indians and Alaska Natives that reside in urban areas, for
savings of $33 million.
BUSH BUDGET CUTS WILL KILL AMERICAN INDIANS
Urban Indian health clinics are a lifeline for tribal members who live
in cities off reservations. The Bush administration has proposed to
sever that lifeline.
Bush's proposed budget would eliminate the Urban Indian Health Program,
which funds primary, preventive and behavioral health care for the 60%
of American Indians and Alaska Natives that reside in urban areas, for
savings of $33 million.
The funding provides services to 34 Indian clinics across the country,
and if they are closed, many American Indians would have to seek care
from reservation clinics which are not exactly down the street.
At the seventh annual Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council Health
Conference in Billings, Mont., Darryl Red Eagle, a council member of the
Fort Peck Assiniboine-Sioux Tribes, said reservation health care
services are underfunded. He added that dental care is available only on
an emergency basis and that patients in need of orthodontic services
will not be able to be seen by a doctor until 2017. Anthony Addison,
co-chair of the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation in
Wyoming, said diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular
problems, as well as illicit drug and alcohol use, are prevalent among
American Indians, and he attributed lack of immediate care as part of
the problem. "We need to come together in a unified, collaborative
effort to do our best to address these issues. Even though money is not
allocated at levels we need ... it never has been funded at [the
proposed] levels," Addison said.
If those clinics are closed, tribal members likely would have to return
to their home reservations to receive health care. But the reservation
clinics and hospitals are barely able to provide services for those
people eligible for care, let alone an influx of others, Montana and
Wyoming tribal leaders said.
Urban Indian health programs report that such a cut would result in
bankruptcies, lease defaults, elimination of services to tens of
thousands of Indians who may not seek care elsewhere, an increase in the
health care disparity for American Indians and Alaska Natives and the
near annihilation of a body of medical and cultural knowledge addressing
the unique cultural and medical needs of the urban Indian population
held almost exclusively by these programs. According to the 2000 Census,
nearly 70% of Americans identifying themselves as of American Indian or
Alaska Native heritage live in urban areas.
Darryl Red Eagle, a council member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine-Sioux
Tribes, said there are already medical “horror stories” because of not
enough funding for health care services to his tribe.Dental care is
available only on an emergency basis, Red Eagle said, and if someone
needs braces the system is backed up until 2017. A tribal elder recently
rode to Billings in the back of a pickup to get her medical care, Red
Eagle said. A man’s gallstones were not considered a matter of “life and
limb,” so he could be referred off-reservation for care until a duct
ruptured and he became infected. The man is in Billings recovering but
had to have part of his pancreas removed and is on dialysis, Red Eagle
said.
Red Eagle held up his left arm and rubbed the elbow where bone chips
float, a condition that sometimes hampers use of his arm but that isn’t
critical enough to make him eligible for IHS treatment.
“There are solutions, but it takes a community to gather our funding,”
Red Eagle said. “There is strength in numbers. We’re bringing all of our
resources and numbers together.”
Addison said there is a requirement in treaties between the government
and tribes for federal funding to provide health care.
“We need to come together in a unified, collaborative effort to do our
best to address these issues,” Addison said. “Even though money is not
allocated at levels we need … it never has been funded at those levels.”
Diabetes, heart disease, drug and alcohol abuse and cancer are
debilitating young and old alike, Addison said. Those are ailments that
don’t stop at reservation boundaries but, in most cases, are more
prevalent in Indian Country. Part of the problem, he said, is that too
often people have to wait until a condition is advanced before health
care is available.
“There are preventative measures that can be done,” Addison said. “But
there’s just not enough money to do it.”
The following article is from the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Native American health: Marchers demand Bush restore funds for urban
clinics
SALT LAKE CITY — To chanting and the pounding of drums, hundreds of
people marched Friday against $33 million in proposed federal cutbacks
that could shut down some urban health clinics for American Indians.
“We’re upset that our center is being threatened, and we’re here to send
a message that you don’t mess with a federal obligation,” said Dena Ned,
executive director of the Indian Walk-In Center in Salt Lake City. “Just
because we live off the reservation doesn’t mean we’re not in need of
health care.”
About 400 people marched peacefully almost two miles from the clinic to
the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building for a rally, police Sgt. Lamar
Ewell said.
President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal says urban Indians could use
regular community-health centers. His budget calls for adding more and
larger health centers for poor people under a $182 million funding
increase. The budget also would increase funding for clinics on Indian
reservations by about 4 percent over the 2006 fiscal year, said Scott
Milburn, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said those programs would do little
to serve American Indians in urban areas, where the clinics double as
social-service networks and cultural centers. He said 83 percent of the
clients at the city’s walk-in center have no health-insurance coverage.
The clinic serves about 4,000 people a year.
Anderson, a Democrat, likened the proposed cut to the government’s
“shameful” history of violating tribal treaties. “What is happening now
is just part of that pattern of betrayal of Native Americans,” he said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he also opposed the cut. “This health
care delivery system has taken decades to create, and if it were to
disappear, it would increase the health care disparities and barriers to
care for American Indians from that of the general population,” Hatch
said in a statement.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations
Committee, said he would work to restore the funding.
Half the country’s 34 urban Indian clinics might have to close if Bush’s
proposal stands, Ned said. The remaining clinics would have to cut
services, charge clients or raise money through private donations to
stay open, she said.
“If these things are cut off, then we’ll have to go back to the
reservation with our tails between our legs,” Eleanor Iron Lightning
told the crowd. A member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe from Eagle
Butte, S.D., she said she’s used the clinic since she moved to Utah in
June 2002.
Community health centers aren’t designed to meet the needs of urban
Indians, according to the National Association for Community Centers.
The centers are for people without health insurance.
In Utah, Community Health Centers Inc. has a $200,000 contract to
provide medical care for the Indian Walk-in Center.
But that’s just a fraction of the clinic’s $1.5 million annual operating
budget, Ned said. If the center were to lose its $1.1 million in federal
contracts, it would also lose grant funding, effectively cutting about
90 percent of its budget.
The center provides diabetes education, immunizations, substance-abuse
treatment, mental-health counseling, holistic care, HIV testing and
youth programs. It also operates a food pantry for the United Way that
handed out some 5,200 boxes of food to Indians and non-Indians last
year.
Nationally, some 60 percent of American Indians and Alaska natives live
in urban areas, according to the Census Bureau.
Urban Indian health clinics are a lifeline for tribal members who live
in cities off reservations. The Bush administration has proposed to
sever that lifeline.
Bush's proposed budget would eliminate the Urban Indian Health Program,
which funds primary, preventive and behavioral health care for the 60%
of American Indians and Alaska Natives that reside in urban areas, for
savings of $33 million.
BUSH BUDGET CUTS WILL KILL AMERICAN INDIANS
Urban Indian health clinics are a lifeline for tribal members who live
in cities off reservations. The Bush administration has proposed to
sever that lifeline.
Bush's proposed budget would eliminate the Urban Indian Health Program,
which funds primary, preventive and behavioral health care for the 60%
of American Indians and Alaska Natives that reside in urban areas, for
savings of $33 million.
The funding provides services to 34 Indian clinics across the country,
and if they are closed, many American Indians would have to seek care
from reservation clinics which are not exactly down the street.
At the seventh annual Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council Health
Conference in Billings, Mont., Darryl Red Eagle, a council member of the
Fort Peck Assiniboine-Sioux Tribes, said reservation health care
services are underfunded. He added that dental care is available only on
an emergency basis and that patients in need of orthodontic services
will not be able to be seen by a doctor until 2017. Anthony Addison,
co-chair of the Northern Arapaho Tribe on the Wind River Reservation in
Wyoming, said diseases such as cancer, diabetes and cardiovascular
problems, as well as illicit drug and alcohol use, are prevalent among
American Indians, and he attributed lack of immediate care as part of
the problem. "We need to come together in a unified, collaborative
effort to do our best to address these issues. Even though money is not
allocated at levels we need ... it never has been funded at [the
proposed] levels," Addison said.
If those clinics are closed, tribal members likely would have to return
to their home reservations to receive health care. But the reservation
clinics and hospitals are barely able to provide services for those
people eligible for care, let alone an influx of others, Montana and
Wyoming tribal leaders said.
Urban Indian health programs report that such a cut would result in
bankruptcies, lease defaults, elimination of services to tens of
thousands of Indians who may not seek care elsewhere, an increase in the
health care disparity for American Indians and Alaska Natives and the
near annihilation of a body of medical and cultural knowledge addressing
the unique cultural and medical needs of the urban Indian population
held almost exclusively by these programs. According to the 2000 Census,
nearly 70% of Americans identifying themselves as of American Indian or
Alaska Native heritage live in urban areas.
Darryl Red Eagle, a council member of the Fort Peck Assiniboine-Sioux
Tribes, said there are already medical “horror stories” because of not
enough funding for health care services to his tribe.Dental care is
available only on an emergency basis, Red Eagle said, and if someone
needs braces the system is backed up until 2017. A tribal elder recently
rode to Billings in the back of a pickup to get her medical care, Red
Eagle said. A man’s gallstones were not considered a matter of “life and
limb,” so he could be referred off-reservation for care until a duct
ruptured and he became infected. The man is in Billings recovering but
had to have part of his pancreas removed and is on dialysis, Red Eagle
said.
Red Eagle held up his left arm and rubbed the elbow where bone chips
float, a condition that sometimes hampers use of his arm but that isn’t
critical enough to make him eligible for IHS treatment.
“There are solutions, but it takes a community to gather our funding,”
Red Eagle said. “There is strength in numbers. We’re bringing all of our
resources and numbers together.”
Addison said there is a requirement in treaties between the government
and tribes for federal funding to provide health care.
“We need to come together in a unified, collaborative effort to do our
best to address these issues,” Addison said. “Even though money is not
allocated at levels we need … it never has been funded at those levels.”
Diabetes, heart disease, drug and alcohol abuse and cancer are
debilitating young and old alike, Addison said. Those are ailments that
don’t stop at reservation boundaries but, in most cases, are more
prevalent in Indian Country. Part of the problem, he said, is that too
often people have to wait until a condition is advanced before health
care is available.
“There are preventative measures that can be done,” Addison said. “But
there’s just not enough money to do it.”
The following article is from the Santa Fe New Mexican.
Native American health: Marchers demand Bush restore funds for urban
clinics
SALT LAKE CITY — To chanting and the pounding of drums, hundreds of
people marched Friday against $33 million in proposed federal cutbacks
that could shut down some urban health clinics for American Indians.
“We’re upset that our center is being threatened, and we’re here to send
a message that you don’t mess with a federal obligation,” said Dena Ned,
executive director of the Indian Walk-In Center in Salt Lake City. “Just
because we live off the reservation doesn’t mean we’re not in need of
health care.”
About 400 people marched peacefully almost two miles from the clinic to
the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building for a rally, police Sgt. Lamar
Ewell said.
President Bush’s 2007 budget proposal says urban Indians could use
regular community-health centers. His budget calls for adding more and
larger health centers for poor people under a $182 million funding
increase. The budget also would increase funding for clinics on Indian
reservations by about 4 percent over the 2006 fiscal year, said Scott
Milburn, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget.
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson said those programs would do little
to serve American Indians in urban areas, where the clinics double as
social-service networks and cultural centers. He said 83 percent of the
clients at the city’s walk-in center have no health-insurance coverage.
The clinic serves about 4,000 people a year.
Anderson, a Democrat, likened the proposed cut to the government’s
“shameful” history of violating tribal treaties. “What is happening now
is just part of that pattern of betrayal of Native Americans,” he said.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said he also opposed the cut. “This health
care delivery system has taken decades to create, and if it were to
disappear, it would increase the health care disparities and barriers to
care for American Indians from that of the general population,” Hatch
said in a statement.
Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations
Committee, said he would work to restore the funding.
Half the country’s 34 urban Indian clinics might have to close if Bush’s
proposal stands, Ned said. The remaining clinics would have to cut
services, charge clients or raise money through private donations to
stay open, she said.
“If these things are cut off, then we’ll have to go back to the
reservation with our tails between our legs,” Eleanor Iron Lightning
told the crowd. A member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe from Eagle
Butte, S.D., she said she’s used the clinic since she moved to Utah in
June 2002.
Community health centers aren’t designed to meet the needs of urban
Indians, according to the National Association for Community Centers.
The centers are for people without health insurance.
In Utah, Community Health Centers Inc. has a $200,000 contract to
provide medical care for the Indian Walk-in Center.
But that’s just a fraction of the clinic’s $1.5 million annual operating
budget, Ned said. If the center were to lose its $1.1 million in federal
contracts, it would also lose grant funding, effectively cutting about
90 percent of its budget.
The center provides diabetes education, immunizations, substance-abuse
treatment, mental-health counseling, holistic care, HIV testing and
youth programs. It also operates a food pantry for the United Way that
handed out some 5,200 boxes of food to Indians and non-Indians last
year.
Nationally, some 60 percent of American Indians and Alaska natives live
in urban areas, according to the Census Bureau.