{"id":14105,"date":"2017-12-12T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/12\/12\/native-americans-feel-invisible-in-u-s-health-care-system\/"},"modified":"2017-12-12T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T10:00:00","slug":"native-americans-feel-invisible-in-u-s-health-care-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/native-americans-feel-invisible-in-u-s-health-care-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Native Americans Feel Invisible In U.S. Health Care System"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Eric Whitney<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Anna Whiting Sorrell, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in northwest Montana, had hernia surgery a couple of years ago. The Indian Health Service picked up a part of the tab for the surgery but denied coverage for follow-up appointments.<\/p>\n

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Mike Albans for NPR<\/p>\n

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Mike Albans for NPR<\/p>\n

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The life expectancy of Native Americans in some states is 20 years shorter than the national average.<\/p>\n

There are many reasons why.<\/p>\n

Among them, health programs for American Indians are chronically underfunded<\/a> by Congress. And, about a quarter of Native Americans reported experiencing discrimination when going to a doctor or health clinic, according to findings of a poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.<\/p>\n

Margaret Moss<\/a>, a member of the Hidatsa tribe, has worked as a nurse for the Indian Health Service and in other systems. She now teaches nursing at the University of Buffalo.<\/p>\n

She says she has seen racism toward Native Americans in health care facilities where she’s worked, and as a mom trying to get proper care for her son.<\/p>\n

Once, when she was on a health policy fellowship with a U.S. Senate committee, Moss’ son had a broken arm improperly set at a non-IHS health facility in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

She asked the physician about options to correct it, but he told her it was fine, she said. “Even when I, as an educated person using the right words was saying what needed to happen, [he] didn’t want to do anything for us even though we had a [health insurance] card.”<\/p>\n