[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Page 2718]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   INDIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT

  Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I welcome the Senate passage of the Indian 
Health Care Improvement Act. The bill is a long overdue response to a 
health crisis for our country's American Indians and would at last 
strengthen and expand health services to those who need it most and 
those to whom promises were made but far too few promises have been 
kept. The last comprehensive reauthorization of IHCIA took place in 
1992--and since then, progress has been ground to a halt in the Senate 
while health disparities for American Indians have dramatically 
widened.
  The situation is dire. Today, American Indians suffer from 
disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, suicide, 
and several types of cancer than all other groups in the United States: 
2.6 times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes; 630 percent more 
likely to die from alcoholism; and a life expectancy nearly 6 years 
shorter than the rest of the U.S. population. The gap between the needs 
of this community and the resources dedicated to addressing them is 
stark: fewer mental health professionals available to treat Indians 
than the rest of the U.S. population; health care expenditures for 
Indians less than half of what America spends for Federal prisoners.
  It goes without saying that we should invest the necessary funds in 
improving health coverage and care for American Indians, which is why 
it is so important that the Indian Health Care Improvement Act 
modernizes Indian health care services and helps ensure at least that 
money is no longer the biggest impediment to quality health care in 
Indian Country.
  In my home State, the status of Indian health care is particularly 
daunting: inadequate health facilities, mental health services and 
assisted living care for the elderly; the percentage of American 
Indians with poor emotional health is on average 2.1 times higher than 
the adult Massachusetts population; an obesity rate twice as high as 
the rate for Massachusetts adults in general. Moreover, the percentage 
of Mashpee Wampanoag adults with diabetes is nearly two times higher 
than the rest of the adult population in our State. During the 5 years 
between 1999 and 2004, American Indian mothers were over three times 
more likely to smoke during pregnancy than all mothers giving birth in 
Massachusetts. American Indian students have much higher percentages of 
smoking, drinking alcohol before age 13, and lifetime cocaine use than 
all other students in Massachusetts. Also, 1 in 4 American Indian high 
school students have reported attempting suicide compared to 1 out of 
10 for all other students. The Indian health bill is an important step 
we must take to begin reversing these troubling statistics in 
Massachusetts and across the Nation.
  This bill can mark a new day of at last addressing the health care 
needs of Indian Country programs to increase the outreach and 
enrollment of Indians in Medicaid and CHIP and improve the ability for 
tribes to participate in managed care health plans. The Indian Health 
Care Improvement Act brings greater access to health care services, 
improved medical insurance coverage, and education of disease 
prevention and healthy lifestyles.
  The Senate came together across partisan lines to take a step forward 
with Indian Country, and I look forward to the quick passage of the 
bill and ultimately to seeing it signed into law by President Bush. 
This must be the beginning, not the end, of a new compact with Indian 
Country--and a renewed commitment to making sure that no American's 
health suffers because they are born on a farm, in a city, or on a 
reservation.

                          ____________________