Udall Asks Pelosi to Move Indian Health Bill to Top of House Agenda

In a statement released yesterday after the long-awaited Senate passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, US Rep. Tom Udall (D, NM-03), urged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to move the bill to the top of the House’s agenda.

“Our nation’s health care system is badly in need of reform,” Udall wrote in a letter to Pelosi. “But nowhere is the issue of inadequate healthcare more acute and in need of improvement than on Native American lands and in the Indian Health Service agency.”

The legislation, which passed the Senate today by a vote of 83-10, is the first substantial overhaul of the Indian health care system in over a decade. It would provide medical care to approximately 1.8 million American Indians and would authorize spending for the Indian Health Service (IHS) for the next 10 years.

Udall acknowledges the legislation does not remedy all of the wide-reaching problems in Indian Country, however, passing the bill will mark huge progress. “While S. 1200 is not a panacea that would immediately fix every one of the problems plaguing the access to care and the quality of care for Native Americans, it is an important and long overdue step towards modernizing the Indian health care system,” he wrote.

To read the full text of Udall’s letter click here.

According to published studies from the US Indian Health Service, IHS-served populations generally suffer from a higher incidence of illness and premature death rates than the U.S. population as a whole. The study indicates that in comparison with the general population, American Indians are 6.5 times more likely to die from alcoholism, 6 times more likely to die from tuberculosis, almost three times more likely to die from diabetes and 2.5 times more likely to die in accidents. To see the full study, click here.

Udall represents a district that is 19 percent Native American. He serves a Co-Vice Chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus and is a member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior and the Environment, which appropriates funding for the Indian Health Service.