WTF?
That's because that's when their fiscal year ends, and the money runs out. This is TRUE rationed care, not like medicaid or medicare, which Native Americans are eligible for but either don't know it or don't have good access to apply for it.
There's a great AP article on REZNET today on this that illustrates the tragic and infuriating situation, called Indian Health Care's Broken Promises.
It starts out with the tragic story of a little girl from the Crow Ageny Reservation in Montana who had chronic stomach pain. She went to the IHS more than 10 times with severe pain over a few months, and they did NOTHING for her. After her lung collapsed, she was airlifted to a children's hospital in Denver, where she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. A charity then sent the whole family to Disney World, but she died in bed on her first day there, never getting to have fun there. So, this is enough to make you cry all by itself.
The horror stories never stop though.
The story cited a couple of tragic stories from the Standing Rock Reservation too. One woman had severe frostbite, which the IHS refused to give her pain medication for, even after several tearful visits, until she threatened to kill herself because she couldn't stand the pain anymore. Finally a doctor from Bismarck on a visit intervened with pain medication. She eventaully lost the tips of her fingers. medication (btw, there is no shortage of paternalism with regard to pain medication on reservations. The people in the most pain often suffer a LOT because the IHS assumes that not a single soul on a reservation really is in acute pain, but actually wants to sell their pain medication instead. I kid you not).
A woman with congestive heart failure was given Tylenol and cough medicine so many times she went to Bismark to get another diagnosis, and was admitted to the hospital immediately it was so bad. She's got permanent damage that probably could have been avoided by (a huge malpractice suit - my bad) er...earlier diagnosis.
What is the background of this. From the article:
A 222-Year-Old Promise Is Not Being Kept
The U.S. has an obligation, based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the government, to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations. But that promise has not been kept. About one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data from the health service.
In Washington, a few lawmakers have tried to bring attention to the broken system as Congress attempts to improve health care for millions of other Americans. But tightening budgets and the relatively small size of the American Indian population have worked against them.
"It is heartbreaking to imagine that our leaders in Washington do not care, so I must believe that they do not know," Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said in his annual state of Indian nations' address in February.
Indian Health Care Statistics are Staggering
When it comes to health and disease in Indian country, the statistics are staggering.
American Indians have an infant death rate that is 40 percent higher than the rate for whites. They are twice as likely to die from diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have a stroke, 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 20 percent more likely to have heart disease.
American Indians have disproportionately high death rates from unintentional injuries and suicide, and a high prevalence of risk factors for obesity, substance abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, teenage pregnancy, liver disease and hepatitis.
While campaigning on Indian reservations, presidential candidate Barack Obama cited this statistic: After Haiti, men on the impoverished Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere.
GOOD LORD!!!
Lest that piss you off insufficiently, here's another WTF moment from the article:
A Note, Diminished Care, a Bill
On another reservation 200 miles north of Standing Rock, Ardel Baker, a member of North Dakota's Three Affiliated Tribes, knows all too well the truth behind the joke about money running out.
Baker went to her local clinic with severe chest pains and was sent by ambulance to a hospital more than an hour away. It wasn't until she got there that she noticed she had a note attached to her, written on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services letterhead.
"Understand that Priority 1 care cannot be paid for at this time due to funding issues," the letter read. "A formal denial letter has been issued."
She lived, but she says she later received a bill for more than $5,000.
Harriet Archambault didn't live through this one:
It was too late for Harriet Archambault, according to the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, who has told her story more than once in the Senate.
Dorgan says Archambault died in 2007 after her medicine for hypertension ran out and she couldn't get an appointment to refill it at the nearest clinic, 18 miles away. She drove to the clinic five times and failed to get an appointment before she died.
Wow, it makes the debate over health care reform seem like such a luxury. The highest mortality rate outside of Haiti???? SHAME on US!!!!
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