PROMISES, PROMISES: Native American health care needs unmet ("Don't get sick after June!")

[Bluebear]

Ta'Shon Rain Little Light

CROW AGENCY, Mont. – Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.

When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed.

Ta'Shon's pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic about 10 more times over several months before her lung collapsed and she was airlifted to a children's hospital in Denver. There she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, confirming the suspicions of family members.

A few weeks later, a charity sent the whole family to Disney World so Ta'Shon could see Cinderella's Castle, her biggest dream. She never got to see the castle, though. She died in her hotel bed soon after the family arrived in Florida.

"Maybe it would have been treatable," says her great-aunt, Ada White, as she stoically recounts the last few months of Ta'Shon's short life. Stephanie Little Light cries as she recalls how she once forced her daughter to walk when she was in pain because the doctors told her it was all in the little girl's head.

Ta'Shon's story is not unique in the Indian Health Service system, which serves almost 2 million American Indians in 35 states.

On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090614/ap_on_go_ot/us_health_care_s_forgotten

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1. :( n/t

[Solly Mack]

2. K&R

[NMMNG]

3. Only the rich deserve health care

Others should die and decrease the surplus population--so the rich can have more at their disposal. :sarcasm:

[G_j]

4. K&R

[Mark Twain Girl]

5. I wish I could think of something to say. Can't. K&R

[juno jones]

6. "doctors told her it was all in the little girl's head"

Doctors say that all the damn time and they never seem to be held accountable when it turns out that it wasn't imaginary. Especially when it was poor people not imagining it.

Health care people on this board take note: This is one of the main reason many of us distrust your profession. Especially since the poor generally won't even go to a clinic unless something seems REALLY wrong. We mostly patch ourselves up at home.

Universal health CARE! Health care is a fucking right!

[slipslidingaway]

7. n/t

[slipslidingaway]

8. Senator Murkowski just mentioned this story on cspan3...

:( :(

"Senators Mark Up Health Reform Bill Today

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Cmte. began its week-long markup of health care legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA). The bill looks to lower costs, provide more public options for health care providers and create an inter-agency council to develop a national health strategy."