Life and death part of Indians’ mindset

When it comes to reforming the mess we euphemistically call “health care” the biggest obstacle is money. One would have had to live in a cave not to know that there is something very wrong with America’s health-care system.

You don’t have to be a Republican, Democrat or an independent to understand that when there are 47 million people living in a country that likes to brag about having the “best health care system in the world” do not have health insurance, we have a real problem.

The daily assault upon proposed health-care changes by radio talk-show hosts has reached a fever pitch. Led by Laura Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh, and fed by the people calling their shows to echo the opinions of the hosts, the distortions of the actual health proposals have become laughable. First the radio shows used a clever, but age-old ploy and began calling health-care reform “ObamaCare.” Put the onus on the president of the United States and stand back.

So far I have not heard one person without health insurance attack the president’s health-care ideas. ... Besides the conservative radio talk-show hosts there are insurance companies, doctors and pharmaceutical companies up to their necks in spending millions to stop the very idea of health care for all Americans. There are about five lobbyists for every member of Congress not only lobbying to gain the support of these elected officials in voting against health care changes but are contributing millions into the campaign coffers of these elected officials. This, we must suppose, is the American way.

Let’s take a look at what they are saying.

Medical counseling

Number one: President Obama does not want to euthanize your grandma. His plan offers senior citizens access to a professional medical counselor to provide them with information on preparing a living will and on other issues that come up near the end of life. In the old culture of American Indians, the elders not only prepared themselves to live but they also prepared themselves to die.

Number two: Democrats are going to do away with private insurance and force you on to a government-run plan. Actually, the Obama plan would increase your choices of insurance companies, not decrease them. And if you are happy with your present coverage, you can keep it.

Number three: Obama wants to implement socialized medicine. Obama’s reform will do away with some of the aspects of rationing health care such as discrimination for pre-existing conditions, insurers who cancel coverage when you get seriously ill, gender discrimination, and lifetime and yearly limits on coverage.

Number four: Obama is secretly planning to cut Medicare benefits. Reform plans will not cut Medicare benefits. It will save money by cutting billions in overpayment to insurance companies and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. These reforms are a badly needed.

Number five: Obama’s health care plan will bankrupt America. The bailouts of the banks and auto industry nearly did that without Obama’s help. Actually, America needs health-care reform now in order to prevent bankruptcy.

Bankruptcies

The rising cost of health care is bankrupting individuals and families, small businesses and is dragging down the American economy. We now spend $2 trillion per year on health care and it is projected that the average family premium for health care will rise to more than $22,000 in the next decade. Who can afford that?

I have always received the best of care from the Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics on the Indian reservations and in the urban settings. The health care I receive at the Indian Hospital in Rapid City, S.D., and the care I received at the Indian Hospital on the Pine Ridge Reservation has been top notch. And for politicians to use the Indian Health Service as a bad example of government run health programs is wrong. It is these very politicians who vote down the badly needed money to sustain and improve the health care of the First Americans that is wrong.

X Tim Giago, whose Oglala Lakota name is Nanwica Kciji, is the founder and first president of the Native American Journalists Association and is now the publisher of the Native Sun News. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune.