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My husband did his residency through the VA in Tucson and was constantly going to Sells to see people at the Tohono O'odham reservation. I'm not sure how the VA was affliated with them. I'll have to ask him.
I agree. There is more that can be done. If that meant higher income taxes then so be it.
BTW it's possible to do what your speaking of. Prior to the inception of the Pell Grant through the Higher Education Act of of 1965, American Indians also received free college education.
Here is some interesting info on the healthcare issue as it relates to American Indians
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...ealth0116.html
Improved Indian health care discussed
Sadie Jo Smokey
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Health care is not a legal right at birth, unless you're a member of a federally recognized American Indian tribe. The U.S. government, which signed treaties promising health services in exchange for land and natural resources, provides health care to more than 1.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to more than 557 federally recognized tribes in 35 states.
Dr. Don Warne, president and CEO of American Indian Health Management and Policy in Tempe, says Indian Health Service, the agency responsible for providing federal health services, receives inadequate funding and its resources suffer as a result.
AIHMP hosts the first American Indian Health Policy Conference on Thursday and Friday at the Fort McDowell Reservation to help Arizona tribes find creative ways to improve services and access to health-care funding.
Warne, 40, also teaches American Indian health policy at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.
Question: Why focus on American Indian health policy?
Answer: Many conferences either focus on specific diseases or specific issues in health care. Our goal is to work with tribal programs to improve access to quality health care. Policy determines what kind of funding is available and priorities. We have to know these to improve access.
Q: What is the funding for Indian Health Service compared with other federal agencies?
A: Per capita, for Indian Health Service, it's about $1,914 per person per year. Federal prisons is about $3,803 per person per year. Medicaid is $3,879 per person per year. If you're a convicted federal prisoner, you have double the (health) resources than if you're a Native American child. There's no way policymakers would accept this for their own families.
Q: Is one segment of the Native American population at more of a disadvantage than another due to underfunding?
A: We have unique issues for urban Indians. A lot of people moved to the cities for education and occupational opportunities. About 60 percent of American Indians live in urban settings; only 40 percent live on reservations. We have a whole segment, a majority, of enrolled American Indian members that have decreased access to health care because they live in cities. Nowhere is it written that once they move to the city, they forfeit their access to health care.
Q: What resources are available for urban Indians? Do they have to return to the reservation to receive health services or medical treatment?
A: You don't have to live on the reservation, but the funding for urban clinics is terribly low, about $1 million per year per clinic. There are currently 34 Urban Indian Health centers. Three are in Arizona - Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tucson. We have a lot more (tribal) members who have private insurance. We need to charge (private) third-party insurance, to charge Medicare and Medicaid. It's increasing resources to increase provision of care.
Q: Why should American Indians with health or dental insurance through their employer pay for services that are free for their relations who don't have insurance?
A: Basically, because of underfunding, IHS can provide primary-care services, but limited access to specialty care and long-term care. For example, oncology, intensive treatment cardiology, heart and lung specialists. Since we don't have specialists working in (IHS clinics), we have to contract with private sector providers. By charging third-party insurance, this frees up more dollars. This has tremendous impact on our ability to access specialty care.
Q: Why don't wealthier tribes with greater financial resources assist tribes without successful economic development?
A: I hear that argument a lot, especially from fiscal conservatives. What they're advocating for is socialism. I agree that we should help each other, but we shouldn't hold tribes to a higher standard than we hold everyone else. There are over 40 million uninsured people and another 40 million underinsured people in this country. Are wealthy non-Indian people responsible to pay for health care for all the impoverished non-Indians? The local tribes surrounding Phoenix have been very helpful in supporting the urban programs with grants, primarily.
Q: How much money does IHS need to adequately provide services for American Indians?
A: Some studies estimate, depending on the area of IHS, if we doubled the budget, we'd have adequate service. There's a federal employees benchmark, $3,800 per person per year. Funding for IHS should be equivalent. If we can come up with $80 billion to start a war, we should be able to come up with another $3 billion to improve the health of the first inhabitants of the nation.
Reach the reporter at sadiejo.smokey@arizonarep ublic.com or (602) 444-8148.
My husband did his residency through the VA in Tucson and was constantly going to Sells to see people at the Tohono O'odham reservation. I'm not sure how the VA was affliated with them. I'll have to ask him.
TPark never did provide that link. He also wasn't "done" with this thread, I guess. This was a lot like his "I'll leave the forum for a year" statement. I'm starting to see a pattern here.
It's naive to believe the US health care system isn't guided to a large part by federally regulations. Once Medicare sets their standards the private insurers and HMOs use that as a basis to determine a lot of what they do.
Money Rules the World.
It all started with Kaiser P. Downhill from there.
I finally saw this movie and what about two years later nothing has changed. Nothing is better and for the most part its worse.
I'm not going to defend Moore but I'll certainly defend the points he makes. My mother lived in Europe for two years came back to the states took a job with health care and ended up moving back to Europe because she couldn't afford to maintain a reasonable lifestyle within the American system. As far as she's concerned the care and service provided for her isn't even comparable. Basically she explained it to me like this "I spent way too much time feeling that I was one minor ailment away from bankruptcy".
To further expand her points she cited the time my sister broke her arm. Even with health care she was out of pocket 4,200.00 dollars and still ended up with 2,300.00 in collections she would have paid had she been billed properly. It hindered her ability to purchase a vehicle twice. She wasn't trying to avoid paying them she didn't know they were in collection. The entire system does nothing to truly help a person....only profit from them at any expense. She flat couldn't live that way any longer.
A good 25% of my customers are Canadians. Never once out of the thousands I've done business with ever mention how poor or unworthy their system is. I usually make a point to mention it just to satisfy my own personal curiosity. I don't get the Anti-American sentiment from them either. They don't bash our system its always been more of a sympathy approach....a lack of understanding as to why this country is so willing to only provide for those who can afford it. As if the health of some are more valuable than others.
I'll be the first to say that I feel as an American that I should be en led to certain things. An education, police safety, fire safety, safe foods to consume, flat and safe roads to travel on
care for my well being and health.
We aren't talking about trivial tangible luxuries here. We are talking about living breathing human beings. Greed has infected this countries ability to provide care to the people that defend it, support it and make this a functional and profitable country. The well being of this countries citizens has been bought off and charged back to us.
They are literally biting the hand that feeds them. Its disgusting and there is no benefit as a societal whole for doing things the way we do. The few with a direct connection to the money aspect of the industry benefit and that's the bottom line.
I don't see how anyone can defend the current design or anything like it considering the amount of people that die unnecessarily each year. How the do you argue against government controlled heath care but be fine with the current police and fire service. Should those be for profit as well? As far as I'm concerned its another service that we should be en led to.
This coming from a guy who resents the sense of en lement the general public has.
So, Ryan: You're en led to help to get a good education, but somebody with no job isn't en led to help finding one?
Where do you get that from? I'm all for programs to help the jobless find work. I just think that most don't take full advantage of whats available.
Saw this movie a few days ago and man what an eye opener. I knew the system has its flaws but after seeing the movie, I was disgusted with our health care. I was sad and angry at the same time. BacktoBasic said it, GREED. Greed is the source of all this. in Humana denying that guy bone marrow treatment to save themselves boatloads of money. Sad .
If Obama doesnt do anything else, I hope he at least fix this health care problem. That one thing alone would be enough to seal his legacy.
I've seen the movie, yeah it had a lot of lies.
Especially of all the congressional hearing footage they doctored for the film.
^^
T_Park is going to get back with us on the incriminating evidence against the movie. It's only been a year so far.
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