In the past couple of weeks, the White House released the president’s budget request, including a boost for IHS; Native women are getting ready to run the Boston Marathon; and Montana backtracked on doula reimbursement.
Here is our biweekly roundup of health equity news across Indian Country.
Tribal Self-Governance; IHS Budget
Last week at the Tribal Self-Governance Conference, held at the Gila River Indian Community Wild Horse Pass Resort and Casino, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted Indian Health Service budget increases and efforts to reduce processed foods on reservations. The Arizona Mirror reported on the secretary’s messaging and where it fits within the actions of an administration that has slashed programs that subsidize tribal communities.
The secretary’s appearance at the conference came on the heels of the president’s FY 2027 budget request, which included a $1.1 billion increase for the Indian Health Service. The funding would put the agency’s budget at around $9 billion.
Government Funds
Six months ago, HHS put $32.1 million into HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) services in Indian Country. The department announced that the investment has led to more than 300 Indian Country ECHO clinics on prevention, expansion of at-home testing initiatives, and, in one tribal community, a sevenfold increase in diagnoses.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Office of Native American Programs announced last week that it is investing $1.1 billion for affordable housing projects in Native communities. Native people have the second-highest rates of homelessness in the United States. As a social determinant of health, housing instability has been shown to lead to poor health outcomes, including chronic disease, mental illness and infectious disease.
Indian Medicaid
South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden approved a bill last month to create a task force to investigate the possibility of forming an Indian Medicaid managed care entity, a model in which tribes would contract with the state to direct federal Medicaid dollars into buckets of health care funding. The bill was introduced by Rep. Will Mortenson, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and co-chair of the State-Tribal Relations Committee.
Haaland’s Health Platform
At a press conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) introduced her health care platform, underscoring support for tribal control of IHS hospital operations, cushioning the state’s Medicaid fund with its oil and gas royalties, and support for tribal lawsuits against the government for failing to uphold trust and treaty obligations to provide adequate health care to Native people.
“We should do whatever we can to make sure that they can access health care, just the same as anyone,” she said. “But also, I will say that the federal government has obligations. That’s a trust and treaty obligation to Indian tribes that the federal government has, and if they’re not living up to it, then they deserve to be sued.”
Long Reads
As the Boston Marathon ramps up, we talked to three Native women running the iconic race. Missy Hendricks (Apache), Molly McGuire (Miami) and Angel Jim (Diné) told us how running is more than exercise: It’s a healing ceremony that connects them to their ancestors.
“It’s in our DNA,” McGuire said. “For Native people, it brings us back to a time when running was all we did; it was part of our daily life. Now, it’s healing for the generational trauma we carry.”
Read their stories and learn how Native Americans have always been a part of the marathon’s storied history.
On the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, the closest hospital to give birth is 100 miles away. Tribal member, postal worker and mother of seven, Misty Pipe supports pregnant women in the community through doula services. Last year, she supported three families through the birthing process. Pipe’s services are entirely volunteer, but hope of getting paid was on the horizon as the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services announced earlier this year that it had finalized licensing requirements for doulas to qualify the service for Medicaid reimbursement.
Then, the state backpedaled. KFF reported on what the change means for families in Montana’s remote Native communities and the people like Pipe working to make birth safer for them.
