Frank Joseph Smecker: Health Care, Not Assimilation: American Indians and Alaskan Natives in the Wake of Health Care Reform
[Frank Joseph Smecker is a social worker and writer from Vermont. His work has appeared in The Ecologist, Z Magazine, Counter Punch, Order of the Earth, Toward Freedom, Dissident Voice and many other publications and sites. He is also a blog writer for the Vermont Commons Journal (for Independence from Empire) and the editor for Radical Earth Defense at Thomas Paine's Corner. Feel free to contact him at: frank.smecker-at-gmail.com.]
While the health care reform debate continues throughout the country, America's indigenous peoples suffer from some of the worse conditions imaginable. Comprising only 1.6 percent of the general population, American Indians and Native Alaskans have not, do not, and more than likely will not receive adequate, if any, health care by the time the Democrats and Republicans are finished.
According to the Office of Minority Health, the Indian Health Service (IHS) provides services to only 1.9 million individuals out of 4.9 million who qualify. This paltry health care delivery comes at a critical time, when American Indians and Alaskan Natives are blighted by appalling conditions and afflictions, such as:
* Infant death rates 40 percent higher than the rates among whites. [1]
* Death rates from alcoholism and tuberculosis approximately 650 percent higher than overall US rates. [2]...
... Health Care as a Euphemism for Assimilation
Health care for Native Americans is essentially the extension of assimilation programs, sanctioned and directed by the Indian Health Service (IHS) under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
In 1921, the Snyder Act provided legislative authority for a federal health program designed to provide services to Native Americans. The IHS claims that the act authorized funds"for the relief of distress and conservation of health ... [and] ... for the employment of ... physicians ... for Indian Tribes throughout the United States."
However, even prior to the ratification of the Snyder Act, the US had been involved in"health care" measures designed for the remaining native population. Holly T. Kuschell-Haworth wrote for DePaul Journal of Health Care Law in the summer of 1999:
The Origins of Federal Native American Health Care Attention to Native American health care began in the nineteenth century when contagious diseases, such as smallpox, threatened the once substantial populations of Native American people. The federal government's earliest goals were to prevent disease and to speed Native American assimilation into the general population by promoting Native American dependence on Western medicine and by decreasing the influence of traditional Indian healers. In 1849, responsibility for Native American health was transferred from the War Department to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA oversaw the use of Congressional appropriations for the establishment of health programs for Native Americans. Responsibility for Native American health has since endured many organizational transfers, and now resides with the Indian Health Service (IHS), an operating division of the Department of Health and Humans Services (DHHS). [10]
Then came the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Passed in 1976, this piece of legislation detailed the US's responsibilities:"Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of this Nation, in fulfillment of its special responsibilities and legal obligations to the American Indian people, to meet the national goal of providing the highest possible health status to Indians and to provide existing Indian health services with all resources necessary to effect that policy." (Author's note: My italics have been added to emphasize the obscene irony of these words with respect to the real, physical effects of the referenced provisions).
In 1976, the US admitted to running a covert program of involuntary sterilization affecting about 40 percent of all American Indian women of childbearing age. [11] Article II of the United Nations 1948 Convention on Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide explicitly proscribes involuntary sterilization as a means of"preventing births among" a targeted population. Nonetheless, the IHS - an adjunct of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at the time - authorized and administered the illicit sterilizations. The putative termination of the program resulted in the transfer of the IHS to the Public Health Service. There were no indictments or punishments for those involved. And the malfeasance does not stop there...
... Seeking Solutions
Rectifying a problem as grisly and entrenched as the exploitation of America's indigenous populations will be difficult. Some lawmakers are pushing for reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act as one means to that end.
On October 14, Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller urging"the inclusion of reauthorization of the IHCI Act as part of comprehensive health insurance reform," www.nmpolitics.net reports. They quote Heinrich,"Our country desperately needs health insurance reform - but our pursuit of reform cannot leave Native Americans behind," he said."I represent tens of thousands of Native Americans in central New Mexico, and my constituents have made it clear that they cannot wait any longer for health care reform in Indian country."
According to New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone:"Less is spent on providing health care to American Indians per-capita than any other sub-population. In fact, we spend more to provide health care to federal inmates than we do for American Indians." As reported at www.racewire.org, Pallone is appealing for an amendment to the current health care bill that would add changes to services for American Indians to"any health care reform that happens in Congress."...
Read entire article at Truthout
While the health care reform debate continues throughout the country, America's indigenous peoples suffer from some of the worse conditions imaginable. Comprising only 1.6 percent of the general population, American Indians and Native Alaskans have not, do not, and more than likely will not receive adequate, if any, health care by the time the Democrats and Republicans are finished.
According to the Office of Minority Health, the Indian Health Service (IHS) provides services to only 1.9 million individuals out of 4.9 million who qualify. This paltry health care delivery comes at a critical time, when American Indians and Alaskan Natives are blighted by appalling conditions and afflictions, such as:
* Infant death rates 40 percent higher than the rates among whites. [1]
* Death rates from alcoholism and tuberculosis approximately 650 percent higher than overall US rates. [2]...
... Health Care as a Euphemism for Assimilation
Health care for Native Americans is essentially the extension of assimilation programs, sanctioned and directed by the Indian Health Service (IHS) under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
In 1921, the Snyder Act provided legislative authority for a federal health program designed to provide services to Native Americans. The IHS claims that the act authorized funds"for the relief of distress and conservation of health ... [and] ... for the employment of ... physicians ... for Indian Tribes throughout the United States."
However, even prior to the ratification of the Snyder Act, the US had been involved in"health care" measures designed for the remaining native population. Holly T. Kuschell-Haworth wrote for DePaul Journal of Health Care Law in the summer of 1999:
The Origins of Federal Native American Health Care Attention to Native American health care began in the nineteenth century when contagious diseases, such as smallpox, threatened the once substantial populations of Native American people. The federal government's earliest goals were to prevent disease and to speed Native American assimilation into the general population by promoting Native American dependence on Western medicine and by decreasing the influence of traditional Indian healers. In 1849, responsibility for Native American health was transferred from the War Department to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). The BIA oversaw the use of Congressional appropriations for the establishment of health programs for Native Americans. Responsibility for Native American health has since endured many organizational transfers, and now resides with the Indian Health Service (IHS), an operating division of the Department of Health and Humans Services (DHHS). [10]
Then came the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Passed in 1976, this piece of legislation detailed the US's responsibilities:"Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of this Nation, in fulfillment of its special responsibilities and legal obligations to the American Indian people, to meet the national goal of providing the highest possible health status to Indians and to provide existing Indian health services with all resources necessary to effect that policy." (Author's note: My italics have been added to emphasize the obscene irony of these words with respect to the real, physical effects of the referenced provisions).
In 1976, the US admitted to running a covert program of involuntary sterilization affecting about 40 percent of all American Indian women of childbearing age. [11] Article II of the United Nations 1948 Convention on Punishment and Prevention of the Crime of Genocide explicitly proscribes involuntary sterilization as a means of"preventing births among" a targeted population. Nonetheless, the IHS - an adjunct of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) at the time - authorized and administered the illicit sterilizations. The putative termination of the program resulted in the transfer of the IHS to the Public Health Service. There were no indictments or punishments for those involved. And the malfeasance does not stop there...
... Seeking Solutions
Rectifying a problem as grisly and entrenched as the exploitation of America's indigenous populations will be difficult. Some lawmakers are pushing for reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act as one means to that end.
On October 14, Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller urging"the inclusion of reauthorization of the IHCI Act as part of comprehensive health insurance reform," www.nmpolitics.net reports. They quote Heinrich,"Our country desperately needs health insurance reform - but our pursuit of reform cannot leave Native Americans behind," he said."I represent tens of thousands of Native Americans in central New Mexico, and my constituents have made it clear that they cannot wait any longer for health care reform in Indian country."
According to New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone:"Less is spent on providing health care to American Indians per-capita than any other sub-population. In fact, we spend more to provide health care to federal inmates than we do for American Indians." As reported at www.racewire.org, Pallone is appealing for an amendment to the current health care bill that would add changes to services for American Indians to"any health care reform that happens in Congress."...