Vetoing Native American Healthcare - New York Times eidtorial

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/opinion/28mon3.html?ref=opinion

Vetoing Native American Healthcare - New York Times

The New York Times | Editorial

Monday 28 January 2008

President Bush's threat to veto a bill intended to improve health
care for the nation's American Indians is both cruel and grossly
unfair. Five years ago, the United States Commission on Civil Rights
examined the government's centuries-old treaty obligations for the
welfare of Native Americans and found Washington spending 50 percent
less per capita on their health care than is devoted to felons in
prison and the poor on Medicaid.

A bipartisan bill to begin repairing this shameful situation is
now on the Senate floor. It takes aim at such long neglected needs as
the plight of urban Indians, who account for two-thirds of the
nation's 4.1 million tribal population. Most of the American Indians
and Alaska natives living in cities are either ineligible for, or
unable to reach, the limited help of the Indian Health Service's
reservation-based programs. During the Bush years the White House has
sought to eliminate - not bolster - the severely underfinanced Urban
Indian Health Program.

Studies have established that Native Americans suffer worse than
average rates of depression, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The
Senate bill would improve treatment for these problems, as well as
address alcohol and substance abuse, and suicide among Indian youth.
It would expand scholarship help so more American Indians could pursue
careers in health care.

The administration insists it wants to improve health care for
Native Americans. But it objects to the most basic parts of the Senate
measure, including its provisions for better urban health programs and
its proposal to provide better access to Medicaid and Medicare.
Officials also reject the bill's proposal to build new clinics because
it would require the government to pay construction workers prevailing
local wages and benefits.

The nation has clear legal and moral obligations to protect the
welfare of Native Americans. Congress must rebuff President Bush's
veto threat and vote overwhelmingly to strengthen and reauthorize the
Indian Health Care Improvement Act.