Authors: National Council of Urban Indian Health

Publication Year: 2009

Last Updated: 2016-04-05

Journal: NCUIH

Keywords: UIHP's, Urban Indian Health Programs, NACHC, National Association of Community Health Centers, Title V 

Abstract:

The Urban Indian Health Program (Title V) within the Indian Health Service is facing elimination in the FY 2008 Budget.

The elimination proposed is based on the Administration’s claim that the medical services offered by the Urban Indian Health Program are a duplication of services already provided by Community Health Centers. However, the Urban Indian Health Program is the only culturally sensitive medical and behavioral health provider to American Indians and Alaska Natives who reside in urban areas. A fact which has been acknowledged by the National Association of Community Health Centers, Inc. who indicated last year that Community Health Centers have neither the means nor the capacity to take on the significant urban Indian patient load, should Title V be zeroed out.

A cut or zeroing out of funding would not only result in bankruptcies and lease defaults, but the near-certain elimination of well over half of the clinics providing services to tens of thousand of Native Americans annually—individuals who most likely will not seek health care elsewhere. In sum, lack of services would increase— not decrease—the gross health care disparities for American Indians and Alaska Natives. As a consequence, the unique body of medical and cultural knowledge of Native health held by these programs would be lost.

File Download: