American Indians and Alaska Natives are entitled to federally funded well being care beneath treaties negotiated between tribal nations and the U.S
American Indians and Alaska Natives are entitled to federally funded well being care beneath treaties negotiated between tribal nations and the U.S. authorities.
“Our treaties say that we now have a proper to well being care offered by the federal authorities,” stated Abigail Echo-Hawk, an enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma and the chief Vice President of Seattle Indian Well being Board. “That is meant to be high quality well being care offered to enrolled members of federally acknowledged tribes to well being care freed from cost in that we already paid for it with the land that the US is on.”
However in line with a 2018 report from the unbiased and bipartisan Fee on Civil Rights, the U.S. authorities has not adequately funded these packages, leaving many indigenous communities with out the power to supply high quality care.
“If we do not get the assets that we’d like, it is all the time going to be a wrestle for us to start to deal with the underlying well being situations that have been constructed on account of the colonial oppression and suppression of each our well being and our financial prosperity inside Indian nation,” Echo-Hawk stated. “Till we see full funding of the Indian Well being Service, we’re all the time going to be struggling to do extra than simply present the speedy wants of our individuals.”
In an emailed assertion despatched to CNBC, the Indian Well being Service stated it had obtained “historic investments” of greater than $9 billion because the begin of the Covid-19 pandemic “to deal with long-standing well being inequities skilled by American Indians and Alaska Natives by guaranteeing a complete public well being response to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic.”
Watch the video above to find out how federally funded well being look after American Indians and Alaska Natives works, and why many activists and consultants want to see the system reformed.