Days after Rep. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., announced he had successfully secured language to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 (IHCI Act) in the House version of the pending health insurance reform bill, he hosted a weekend town hall meeting in Albuquerque with local American Indian groups.
After the Saturday meeting at First Nations Community Healthsource , Heinrich told NMPolitics.net that clinics in his district face budgetary challenges that have kept them from moving forward for a decade.
The First Nations’ clinic in Albuquerque focuses on primary, dental and behavioral health care for American Indians in Albuquerque, and incorporates traditional healing methods in its patient treatment plans.
It has 13 rooms and is serving, on average, 1,200 medical patients, 700 dental patients and nearly 400 behavioral health patients every month.
It also includes a sweat lodge.
That’s one of the reason’s 39-year-old Morris Joe, who participated in the roundtable, uses the facility. He suffered a spinal cord injury 23 year ago after falling asleep at the wheel of his vehicle and crashing.
Joe told NMPolitics.net the traditional healing methods at First Nations are one of the reasons he prefers the clinic.
“I get native treatment from my doctor and I get my overall spiritual care from other people that I’ve become acquaintances with here,” Joe said. “I get what I need here, but it’s very limited to primary care. I have to go elsewhere to get my other services if I need.”
Joe, who has private insurance, said Heinrich told the group of about 16 people that if Congress extends the IHCI Act, it will allocate some resources that will improve his care. In the meantime, Joe remains frustrated that the First Nations’ clinic is not completely handicap accessible.
“It’s hard for me to get around — into the nurses’ and doctors’ offices. Their hallways are small with tight corners,” Joe said. “It would be good if they enlarged the facility. It needs a complete overhaul.”
Hoping for a government option
The director of the RWJF Center for For Native American Health Policy at the University of New Mexico, Ken Lucero, also spoke to NMPolitics.net after the meeting on Saturday.
Lucero, like Heinrich, said he’s hopeful some sort of government option will be included in reform.
Lucero said he’s encouraged by the support in Washington, D.C. for the IHCI Act. He said Indian health care has traditionally been underfunded despite some of the health care disparities in the country.
We ‘cannot leave Native Americans behind’
Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., joined 15 senate colleagues in introducing the IHCI Act in the U.S. Senate, so it’s being discussed in that chamber as well.
But it was Heinrich who sent a letter on Oct. 14 to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller urging the inclusion of reauthorization of the IHCI Act as part of comprehensive health insurance reform.
“Our country desperately needs health insurance reform — but our pursuit of reform cannot leave Native Americans behind,” Heinrich said. “I represent tens of thousands of Native Americans in central New Mexico, and my constituents have made it clear that they cannot wait any longer for health care reform in Indian country.”
The act governs the Indian Health Care System and is the provider of choice for many American Indian patients. It was last reauthorized in 1992, but that reauthorization expired eight years ago.
An amendment authored by Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall, D-W.V., would reauthorize the program until 2025 and make the most urgent reforms to the program.