IHS focus of US News article
The 10/4/2004 US News and World report did an article on the state of healthcare with American Indians. The full article requires a subscription, but an excerpt can be found with the National Indian Health Board.
There were some interesting figures on dollars spent per patient.
But the Indian Health Service can’t spend money it doesn’t have, and it doesn’t have much. America spends an average of about $5,000 per person per year on healthcare. For government programs that deliver healthcare directly, the per-person expenditure varies enormously: $5,200 by the Veterans Administration, more than $3,300 by the armed forces, $3,800 per federal prisoner, and $1,900 by the Indian Health Service. Money isn’t everything, but without it you can’t buy healthcare. And without it a dent will never be made in the health disparities of these people to whom our government has given its word.
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