[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[House]
[Pages 18226-18227]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  NATIVE AMERICAN INDIANS' HEALTH CARE: GOVERNMENT MEDICAL MALPRACTICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has been 
running a universal nationalized health care system in the United 
States for over 100 years. Just ask those folks that live on Indian 
reservations.
  Socialized medicine doesn't work, and America has already proved it 
by the way it has mistreated Native American Indians. They are treated 
under the Indian Health Services Program, a universal government-run 
health care system for Indians.
  There are long waiting lines for service, doctors are scarce, the 
quality of medical care is poor, it costs too much, and it results in 
rationed health care. When the government is running health care, 
people die. Now the administration is forcing universal health care on 
everybody.
  Let's look at some of our history on American-run health care: when 
Stephanie Little Light took her daughter, Ta'Shon Rain, to the Indian 
Health Service Clinic in Montana, which she was required to do since 
she is under the universal health care Indian program, the doctor said 
her little 5-year-old girl was just depressed. She had stopped eating 
and stopped walking. The little girl kept complaining to her mom that 
her stomach hurt. And after going back to the government-run health 
care clinic 10 more times, Ta'Shon's lung collapsed.
  She was air-lifted to a private, nongovernment hospital in Denver 
where they told her mom she had terminal cancer. The little girl who 
loved to dance and sing and dress up in Indian costumes always wanted 
to see Cinderella's World at Disney World. A charity sent the whole 
family there, but Ta'Shon didn't get to see the castle when they got to 
Florida. The little girl had died in her hotel room. The

[[Page 18227]]

mother says she still cries when she remembers how her daughter was 
always in pain before she died.
  There are more examples. The doctors at the Indian Health-run clinic 
told Stephanie there was nothing wrong with her daughter, that she just 
had all of this in her mind.
  This is a tragic example of medical health care run by the United 
States Government. There is a big difference between good intentions 
and what really happens in the real world. When there are no doctors 
left and the taxpayer money is gone and when bureaucrats control health 
care, people die. Is this what we are to expect under the new 
nationalized health care system?

                              {time}  1530

  Mr. Speaker, they say on these Indian reservations don't get sick 
after June because that's when all the Federal money runs out. So they 
ration health care.
  The Indian Health Service Agency calls itself, get this, a ``rationed 
health care system.'' How's that for truth about socialized medicine?
  Rhonda Sandland lives on Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota. 
She'd had a terrible case of frostbite on both her hands, and her hands 
had turned purple. The pain got so bad that she could not even dress 
herself. She visited the Indian Health Service clinic over and over 
again. Rhonda says she didn't get any help there until she threatened 
to kill herself because of the pain. The clinic then decided to cut off 
five of her fingers. Lucky for Rhonda there was a private doctor that 
just happened to be visiting the reservation. He prescribed her 
medicine that she needed, instead of cutting off her fingers. She's 
okay today.
  Victor Brave Thunder was not so fortunate. He felt real bad and he 
went to the same government clinic as Rhonda. They misdiagnosed the 
fact that he had heart failure, and gave him Tylenol and cough syrup. 
He later died.
  Marcella Buckley has access to all the free government health care 
she can stand. Once again, she's required to go to the government 
Indian Health Care Services. Marcella had stomach pains and went to the 
government clinic on her Indian reservation for 4 years. She was given 
a whole host of reasons for her stomach pain, including the fact, they 
said, she might have a tapeworm. Eventually she found out she had Stage 
4 stomach cancer, and it had spread all over her body. Now she seeks 
treatment at a private provider.
  On another Indian reservation, Ardel Baker went to her government-run 
clinic because she had chest pains. They sent her in an ambulance to a 
private hospital where she noticed that they had put a note on her 
chest in the ambulance. And the note read, ``Understand that Priority 1 
care cannot be paid for by us at this time because of funding issues.'' 
So they put a note on her, send her on her way to a private hospital 
because they can't take care of her. Ardel managed to survive that 
ordeal, thanks to private medicine.
  But it was too late for Harriet Archambault. Harriet died when her 
hypertension medicine ran out. She tried five times to get an 
appointment to refill that medicine. Government bureaucrats nowhere to 
be found. So she died before she could ask for that sixth appointment 
at that government clinic.
  Mr. Speaker, these are examples of government-run medical malpractice 
against the Indians right here in America. Government-run health care 
never works. Even in America we've proven it doesn't work.
  And, Mr. Speaker, I will just close by saying this: If you love the 
way we run the Postal Service, and you love the way that we run FEMA, 
and you love the compassion of the IRS, you will love the new 
nationalized health care system. Just ask the American Indians.

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