Good health is a person's greatest asset but for many Native Americans their health status is impaired. In category after category, Native Americans suffer sickness and disease at greater rates than other Americans.
Thank you Mr. Chairman.
I join you in welcoming Dr. Roubideaux and our other witnesses to the subcommittee this afternoon.
It is said that good health is a person's greatest asset but for many Native Americans their health status is impaired. In category after category, Native Americans suffer sickness and disease at greater rates than other Americans. As the Indian Health Service has noted Native Americans dies at higher rates than other Americans from:
---alcoholism (552% higher)
---diabetes (182% higher)
---unintentional injuries (138% higher)
---homicide (83% higher) and
---suicide (74% higher)
And while Native American life expectancy has increased, it is still 4.1 years less than all U.S. other races.
As bad as these statistics are, I do want to acknowledge the work done by the Indian Health Service to improve Indian Health in the past 50 years and address such problems as high infant mortality and excessive deaths from disease. But even as progress has been made, old challenges remain and new ones appear, like the epidemic of diabetes among Native Americans.
We will hear more today about the health issues facing Native Americans and as much as we recognize the role of the Indian Health Service in addressing these health needs, we must also recognize that there are also larger societal issues that play a part in this. Issues like poverty, education and rural isolation complicate efforts to improve Indian health.
I appreciate the bipartisan manner in which this subcommittee has approached Indian health and have been pleased to work with the chairman to provide additional funds for the Indian Health Service. But in a period of restrained funding it is becoming more and more of a challenge to provide the resources necessary for the Indian Health Service.
And here we are in the midst of a sequester that has cut five percent from most Indian health programs, putting a severe strain on the Indian Health Service and possibly further endangering the health of the Native American clients the agency serves. There have been some who have applauded this sequester but we only need to look at the real and direct impact on Native Americans to see the foolishness of this meat-axe approach.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for holding this oversight hearing on Indian health and look forward to the testimony of our witnesses this afternoon.
Source: U.S. Department of HCA
