The Indian Health Care Improvement Act was permanently reauthorized as part of national health care reform! The IHCIA, the cornerstone legislation for Native American health care, has been sitting in Congress for nearly twenty years. In that twenty years, the disparity between the health care available to Native populations and that available to the general population became unconscionable. Though funding was annually appropriated to IHS, it was less than half of what the agency needed and ran out half way into the year. Because of this severe lack of funding, Native Americans were faced with not only structural barriers to health care, but also substandard care that resulted in more severe disease symptoms, later presentation of illnesses, delayed treatment and diagnosis, less effective treatments, and higher death rates. Many IHS facilities did not even have the means to meet community members medical needs and many Native Americans were denied services at all. Furthermore, according to the United States Commission for Civil Rights, "Underfunding violates the basic tenets of the trust relationship between the government and Native peoples and perpetuates a civil rights crisis in Indian Country."
The IHCIA will not only eliminate health care gap and provide the funding necessary to bring the quality of Native American health up to a level parity with that of the general US population, it also allocates billions of dollars for new facilities, domestic violence programs, and preventative treatment programs.
Basically, this is absolutely wonderful and the best thing a president has done for Natives since... well, since IHS was created in the first place.
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