Here & Now

2019 State of the Tribes

Frederica Freyberg:
Now to the state capitol, where Oneida Nation Chairman Tehassi Hill delivered the 2019 State of the Tribes Address Tuesday. He covered a lot of ground: Indian mascots, global warming and chronic wasting disease are just a few of the issues he brought to the joint session of the state legislature. Here’s some of what Chairman Hill had to say about health care.

Tehassi Hill:
Wisconsin Tribal Nations face a disproportion amount of health disparities when compared to general public. Data collected by the National Indian Health Board demonstrates Indians in Wisconsin have nearly twice the rate of health disparities than all other races. For example, the diabetes rate is two, sometimes three times higher in tribal communities. The substance abuse rate is six to eight times higher than the general population. Just like Wisconsin, our tribal leadership wants to ensure our communities have access to quality health care.
[applause]
However Wisconsin Tribal Nations continue to face challenges with the state and efforts surrounding Medicaid, Medicaid waivers and the general approach to health care overall.
[applause]
One of the challenges underlying, understanding the basis of a health care system and how our tribal health care systems are different. The United States has a long-standing, legal obligation to provide for the health care of American Indians that dates back to the founding of the Republic in exchange for the vast tracks of land and resources by tribal nations, the United States entered into treaties that required the United States provide for the health and welfare of native people. Those obligations still exist today.
[applause]
Another challenge we face and strongly oppose are the work requirements in Medicaid as a condition of eligibility. While tribes support full employment for all our members, Medicaid work requirements create disincentives for recipients within the tribal health care system. Instead work requirements will cause many, if not all of our members to drop out of Medicaid. This will mean less federal money available for us to provide health care for our people. We are already underfunded and cannot accept any more cuts. Work requirements also are inconsistent with United States trust and treaty obligations to provide health care for our people and inconsistent with the goals of Medicaid statute.