To address the deplorable state of Indian health care:
"I am signing S. 522, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act," President Gerald R. Ford wrote on Oct. 1, 1976. "This bill is not without its faults, but after personal review, I have decided that the well-documented needs for improvement in Indian health manpower, services and facilities outweigh the defects in the bill. ... I am signing this bill because of my own conviction that our first Americans should not be last in opportunity."
There is no comparison to the state of health care for American Indians since the act passed Congress--statistics improved significantly in nearly every category.
1 comment:
Writerfella here --
In the years since the Ford Administration, the Indian Health Service continued to be deplorable even though its appropriations were increased from time to time. The actual bulk of the monies went for salaries and health care dollars per capita actually dwindled. In Oklahoma, for example, the Contract Health Department of the Lawton Indian Hospital buys health care policies from Blue Cross of New Mexico and then plays HMO triage games as to whom and for what the unit approves or disapproves specialized care and referrals. Uncounted millions from each year's appropriations are then held in escrow for Grandfather knows what or for whom.
And the man appointed by George W. Bush to head the Indian Health Service is Dr. Charles Grim, DDS, whose testimony before Congress was applauded and then he quickly was confirmed. Grim's fairy tale was that IHS monies better would be spent in transforming government clinics and hospitals for Natives into 'wellness centers and health education' facilities. The Native populations were to be educated into better health through better lifestyles and disease prevention protocols. That way, the clinics and hospitals soon would be able to get out of the direct health care business entirely, as Natives instead no longer would need direct health care.
Being a dentist, he actually may believe the above, as dentistry is fraught with preventive education. Except, how do you educate people away from cancer, or broken bones, or breech births, or blood disorders, or allergic responses, or everyday accidents, or viral respiratory diseases, or the coming resurgence in Tuberculosis, or genetic and/or autoimmune conditions, to name but a few? In 2005, writerfella's own brother David, 56, succumbed to Polyangiia nervosa, an autoimmune disorder that inflames the tiniest capillaries in the body and starves nerves in the extremities until one loses all use of arms and legs. At last, the severe steroid treatments cause gastrointestinal bleeding that only can end in sepsis and death. If ever writerfella were to confront 'Dr.' Grim, he would ask exactly how David could have been 'educated' out of dying from this genetic defect.
There is a long-standing observation about the value and effectiveness of any Presidential administration and that it is to be found in how the Native Americans fare under the newest "Great White Father."
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
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