Post by Okwes on Feb 6, 2008 11:25:19 GMT -5
Windy Boy says Indian health care should be among highest priorities
By Tribune Staff
Funding for Indian health care should be among the federal government's
highest priorities, state Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, told a field
hearing of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., held the hearing in
Billings to collect testimony on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Windy Boy, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee, reminded
those at the hearing of tribes' status as sovereign nations. "Many of the
diseases that tribal people suffer from are completely preventable and/or
treatable with adequate resources and funding," he said, according to a copy of
his remarks.
He added that if tribes are viewed only in relationship to their proportion
of the nation's population, "health policy - and the subsequent allocation of
funding toward health care - will be determined on the basis of tribes being
a marginalized minority and not as sovereign nations with distinct treaty
rights, which have been negotiated with the full faith and honor of the United
States."
Windy Boy also spoke of tribes' need for help for their members in neg
otiating the Medicaid eligibility process.
"Tribal people often cannot afford to jump through the hoops of a
budget-management protocol, and the denial of access to care can be disastrous for the
individual tribal member and their family," he said.
By Tribune Staff
Funding for Indian health care should be among the federal government's
highest priorities, state Rep. Jonathan Windy Boy, D-Box Elder, told a field
hearing of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday.
The committee, chaired by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., held the hearing in
Billings to collect testimony on the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Windy Boy, a member of the Chippewa Cree Tribal Business Committee, reminded
those at the hearing of tribes' status as sovereign nations. "Many of the
diseases that tribal people suffer from are completely preventable and/or
treatable with adequate resources and funding," he said, according to a copy of
his remarks.
He added that if tribes are viewed only in relationship to their proportion
of the nation's population, "health policy - and the subsequent allocation of
funding toward health care - will be determined on the basis of tribes being
a marginalized minority and not as sovereign nations with distinct treaty
rights, which have been negotiated with the full faith and honor of the United
States."
Windy Boy also spoke of tribes' need for help for their members in neg
otiating the Medicaid eligibility process.
"Tribal people often cannot afford to jump through the hoops of a
budget-management protocol, and the denial of access to care can be disastrous for the
individual tribal member and their family," he said.