Proposed Budget Cuts Called Threat to Indian Health Care

Proposed federal budget cuts in health care for American Indians will accelerate the demise of the Indian nations, and the medicine wheel is not the answer, Indian leaders said at the fourth National Indian Health Care Conference on Tuesday.

More than 700 tribal leaders and Indian health aides from throughout the country gathered in San Diego for the three-day conference to address health concerns and to plan a strategy to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act that is before Congress.

The most imminent threat to adequate health care, if the bill is not reauthorized, would be the elimination of the Community Health Representative program, said Cecilia FireThunder, a local Sioux leader and a coordinator of the conference.

The health representative is a member of the tribe who is trained to provide information to those in need of medical attention, such as teen-age mothers and the elderly, FireThunder said.

“The President has said that the CHR program is not needed and threatens to veto the bill like he did last year,” FireThunder said.

The bill, which must be reauthorized each year, would fund 38 American Indian clinics in urban areas across the nation. Clinics are operating with previously authorized money, pending action by Congress.

“The President does not feel a responsibility to the Indian people,” FireThunder said. “The government has agreed in treaties to provide health care, and every year it’s a major battle.”

The current federal budget for Indian Health Services is $830 million, $25 million of which is for the Community Health Representative program, said Ada White, a member of the Crow tribe in Montana and president of the national health representative association.

“If we are not funded, there will be an increase in infant mortality and deaths from delayed care,” White said.

The most prevalent health problems facing tribes are diabetes, teen-age pregnancy, alcoholism and poor sanitation, White said.

Eileen Spino, 35, of the Warm Springs Confederated Tribes in central Oregon, said the Community Health Representative program has been instrumental in helping those in her tribe who are on dialysis and in persuading the elderly to accept “modern” medicine.

“The elderly have never accepted anything modern until recently,” Spino said. “They have been so reliant on Indian traditions.”

The CHRs “understand tribal needs, and the cut would affect everybody,” Spino said. “My people would never be able to survive without the program.”