| Native Americans for Community Action, Inc.
Flagstaff, Arizona 86004
February
6, 2007
Honorable
Charles B. Rangel
Chairman
Ways and
Means Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Dear
Chairman Rangel:
As the House Ways and Means Committee deliberates this week
regarding President Bush’s budget proposals, particularly that for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services FY 2008 budget, I would respectfully
submit the following written statement for the committee’s consideration and for
inclusion into the written record of the hearing. I do this on behalf of the
thousands of Native Americans in Arizona and throughout the country who will be
directly and adversely impacted by the budget as proposed.
Within the Indian Health Service budget, the Urban Indian
Health Program line item has been slated for zero funding or elimination for FY
2008. This proposal is based on the Administration’s claim that the medical
services offered by the Urban Indian Health Program (UIHP) are a duplication of
services already provided by the community health center nationwide network.
What this rationale doesn’t address is that UIHP’s are the only culturally
sensitive medical and behavioral health provider to Native Americans and Alaska
Natives who reside in the urban setting. This fact, in effect, has been
acknowledged by the National Association of Community Health Centers, who
indicated last year that Community Health Centers have neither the means nor
the capacity to take on the significant urban Indian patient load, should the
budget elimination be approved.
A reduction or zeroing out of UIHP funding would negate and
undermine the grassroots, community efforts of these UIHP non-profit
organizations over the last 30 or more years. Many clinics would be vulnerable
to lease defaults and bankruptcies. Worse yet, many of the thousands of Native
American patients may put off or not seek health care elsewhere. To sum it up,
the gross health care disparities for Native Americans and Alaska Natives that
now exist would increase. A bad situation would become worse and the unique
body of medical and cultural knowledge of Native health held by these programs
would be lost.
$32.7 million dollars in appropriations to support a
national network of 34 UIHP clinics is not, by anyone’s standards, extravagant.
In fact, observers wonder how we are able to do it at all. Each budget year,
these programs have to fight, “tooth and nail”, for continued support. Calls
for increases are, of course, seemingly ignored. Is this the way to honor
treaties and promises made by our government? I think not.
In closing, I ask that the Committee take a serious and
in-depth look at this proposal regarding elimination of funding for UIHP’s and
that you do so by questioning it and weighing the consequences. Knowing that this will happen, I am confident that
you will come to the same conclusion as I have.
If you or the Committee require additional information,
please feel free to contact me at 928-526-2968.
Respectfully submitted,
Dana Russell
Chief Executive Officer
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