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Essay On Native American Health Care

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Since the beginning of this country Native American Indians have been an underserved population in rights, education, and healthcare. Healthcare for Native American Indians has been guaranteed today though treaties, executive orders, laws, and acts. However, Indians were not even considered citizens of the United States until 1968 and it was a very long haul to get to these rights and have substantial health care provided. Native American Healthcare has an exhaustive list of laws and policies but have four main laws that explain the basics of their healthcare system. Native Americans first health care policy was the Snyder Act of 1921. This law came about as the result of The Dawes Act of 1887, which made it illegal for Native Americans …show more content…

There is also the clinic conditions, some patients have to wait over 4 hours because clinics are over run or maybe there isn’t enough staff because many tribal clinics struggle keeping physicians on retainer because of their location. (CITE) Then there is the issue of access to care about 229 of the 566 reservations live in remote areas only accessible by airplane or boat in Alaska. (Dovey, Dana. 2016.) This makes seeing a doctor for one visit, let alone a follow-up, inconvenient and costly. (Dovey, Dana. 2016.) A study done in 2006 said that the Quality of care has improved within the Indian Health Services for many services, “however, found that performance in specific areas may be limited by access to essential resources.” In the study they also found there has been an increase in quality of care improvement across Native American health clinics but there is a lack of data for these results. (Sequist, T. D., 2011.) The Indian Health Service is found to provide health care to 1.9 million Native Americans in a study done in 2009, however only representing approximately 50% of the Native population. (Sequist, T. D.,

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