Native Americans are Already in a Public Plan — and It’s Not Very Good
This is Terry Anderson, writing in the Wall Street Journal:
In 2007, rates of infant mortality among Native Americans across the country were 1.4 times higher than non-Hispanic whites and rates of heart disease were 1.2 times higher. HIV/AIDS rates were 30% higher, and rates of liver cancer and inflammatory bowel disease were two times higher. Diabetes-related death rates were four times higher. On average, life expectancy is four years shorter for Native Americans than the population as a whole.
Rural Indians fare even worse….. in Montana and Wyoming, Indians suffer diabetes at rates 20% higher, heart disease 12% higher, and lung cancer rates 67% higher than the average across all IHS regions in the country. A recent Harvard University study found that life expectancy on a reservation in neighboring South Dakota was 58 years. The national average is 77.
Here’s my suggestion: make the public plan the Indian Health Service and make every member of Congress join it.
Neil, don’t forget Obama. He should also be in the Indian health Service. It will give all the private plans the competition they need to become more efficient.
Has anybody thought about a trade of places? Let the Indians join the federal employees’ FEHBP health insurance system and put members of Congress in the Indian’s IHS system.
hey idiots… they arent from india
they are NATIVE AMERICANS
be more consistent
morons