Native Organizers Alliance - Sign to increase Native participation in federal decision-making about healthcare.

 

Patricia, We paid a price for the treaty right to healthcare: our land and lives lost. We signed treaties, legal documents that promised healthcare for our Tribes. But the federal government has never lived up to that duty and legal responsibility. Our communities face major disparities in access to healthcare as well as health outcomes. Some hospitals and clinics are starting to close due to last year’s cuts to Medicaid, and more are at risk. In the rural areas surrounding our reservations, hospitals and clinics are facing the same crisis. Meanwhile, the president and Republicans in Congress are talking about further cutting healthcare services, while trying to spend billions more of our tax dollars on ICE, the military, and even Trump’s ballroom. Last week, we sent thousands of messages urging Congress to reject the president’s recently proposed cuts to crucial programs for Native health and more. Now we’re lifting up the Indian Health Service (IHS), an agency that plays a key role in Native healthcare. The IHS is chronically underfunded and understaffed, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation in Congress to make it better. Please tell your members of Congress to pass the Stronger Engagement for Indian Health Needs Act, which would elevate the Indian Health Service Director’s position and increase Native representation and authority in federal decision-making about healthcare. SIGN AND SEND Last year’s cuts to Medicaid, a major source of funding for the IHS, will harm 700,000 Native people -- including 60% of all Native children and two out of every five elders. Here at Native Organizers Alliance Action Fund, we’ll keep organizing the political pressure to fight these violations of our rights and attacks on our communities. We are also working with other communities because healthcare is a human right! We’ll continue demanding the federal government reverse past cuts, expand funding for people’s needs, and uphold its responsibilities to Tribes -- including spending at least $55 billion more per year for the IHS. (Two years ago a group of Tribal leaders, organizations, and Urban Indian Health programs determined that the IHS needs at least $63 billion each year.) With your support, we’ll keep building political power and pressure to secure our rights, including pushing for policies like the Stronger Engagement for Indian Health Needs Act, which would get us closer to: a federal government that upholds Tribal sovereignty ensuring our sovereign right and treaty right to healthcare eradicating deadly health disparities saving and improving lives Groups such as the National Congress of American Indians and the National Indian Health Board have endorsed this bill. So has the National Council of Urban Indian Health, whose CEO said: “Effective healthcare delivery requires empowered leadership, and elevating the IHS Director to Assistant Secretary [for Indian Health, within the Department of Health and Human Services] is a critical step in moving Indian health from an afterthought to a primary focus of federal healthcare policy.” Please sign and send a message to your members of Congress, urging them to support this bill to uphold their responsibilities to Tribal Nations and save lives. It’s bipartisan so it has a real chance of passing if we demand it! Hawwih (thank you) for taking action, Judith LeBlanc (Caddo) Executive Director POWER OUR MOVEMENT

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