Indian Health Care Improvement Act clears hurdle

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Indian Health Care Improvement Act clears hurdle
Friday, December 4, 2009
Filed Under: Health | Politics

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved S.1790, the Indian Health
Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act, at a business
meeting on Thursday.

The bill permanently reauthorizes all current Indian health programs,
eliminating the need for tribes to go to Congress in the future. The
last IHCIA expired in 2001.

"This is a major milestone,” said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota),
the chairman of the committee. “As the nation’s attention is focused
on the need for health reform, legislation recognizing and responding
to the urgent and long overdue need to modernize the health care we
provide to the First Americans is making important progress in the
Senate.”

"The action by the Indian Affairs Committee today is a crucial step in
assuring that American Indians receive the health care they deserve,”
added Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota), one of the co-sponsors. “This
bill will help us live up to our obligation to help Indian Country. It
is long overdue and I hope that the full Senate moves quickly on
passing this legislation.”

According to the committee, the bill would:

•· Permanently re-authorize all current Indian health care
programs;

• Authorize programs to increase the recruitment and retention of
health care professionals, such as updates to the scholarship program,
demonstration programs which promote new, innovative models of health
care, to improve access to health care for Indians and Alaska Natives;

• Authorize long-term care, including home health care, assisted
living, and community based care. Current law provides for none of
these forms of long-term care;

• Establish mental and behavioral health programs beyond alcohol
and substance abuse, such as fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and
child sexual abuse and domestic violence prevention programs;

• Establish demonstration projects that provide incentives to use
innovative facility construction methods, such as modular component
construction and mobile health stations, to save money and improve
access to health care services; and

• Require that the Indian Health Service budget account for
medical inflation rates and population growth, in order to combat the
dramatic underfunding of the Indian health system.

The House passed IHCIA as part of H.R.3692, the Affordable Health Care
for America Act, but has advanced H.R.2708, a standalone version of
the bill.

Indian Health Care Improvement Act:
S.1790 | H.R.2708