The Secretary of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly committed to protecting and improving health services for the Amerindians – whether during his confirmation audience of the Senate at the end of January or a trip in April in Arizona, where he met tribal chiefs.
In some ways, he did.
When the layoffs had to strike the Indian health service – the federal agency responsible for providing health care to the Amerindians and Auxka of Alaska – the department of Kennedy canceled the shares a few hours later.
In April, during the visit of the Navajo Nation of Arizona, Kennedy told Kff Health News that he ensured that budget cuts and broader dismissals in HHS do not affect the Amerindian communities.
But tribal leaders expressed skepticism. They said they had already seen the fallout from the radical reorganization between federal health agencies. Public health data is incomplete and the agency’s communication has become less reliable. The tribes also lost at least $ 6 million in subsidies from other HHS agencies, according to a letter that National Indian Health Board sent to Kennedy in May.
“There may be a false idea among part of the administration that the Indian country is only affected by changes to the Indian health service,” said Liz Malerba, expert in tribal policy and citizen of the Mohegan tribe. “It’s just not true.”
Amerindians face higher rates of chronic diseases and die younger than other populations. These inequalities come from centuries of systemic discrimination. The Indian Health Service was chronically underfunded and in sub-employment, which led to gaps in care.
Janet Alkire, president of the Sioux tribe of luxury tribe in the Dakotas, said in a hearing in the May Senate that the canceled subsidies had paid for community health workers, vaccinations, the modernization of data and other public health efforts.
Other programs – including those intended for young Amerindians interested in science and medicine and increasing access to healthy foods – were reduced after the government declared having violated the prohibition of the Trump administration on “diversity, equity and inclusion”.
Aboriginal leaders and organizations have requested a tribal consultation, a legal process required when federal agencies examine changes that affect tribal nations. Alkire and other tribal leaders of the senatorial committee hearing said that federal officials had not responded.
“It is not only a moral question of what we owe to the natives,” said senator Brian Shatz (D-Hawaii) during the hearing. “It is also a question of the law.”
