We noticed back in February, a member of the Winnebago tribe (a Native American group in Nebraska) was pleading with Congress to help deal with the substandard health care her tribe was receiving through the Indian Health Service. The hospital there, operated by the federal IHS, had lost its Medicare and Medicaid funding because of widespread violations that put the health of patients in “immediate jeopardy.” We followed up with her in August to see how things had progressed, and she said her Winnebago tribe was still receiving “third world” health care.
After interviewing experts, we visited the hospital and community to report what has been going on. We found that many Native Americans feel betrayed by IHS and worry about care they are receiving from an underfunded, mismanaged agency — which in many ways has created a health care crisis for a neglected portion of the U.S. population. We also found that many Native American tribes, like the Winnebago in Nebraska, have actively taken over their local health care systems from the IHS in response to the poor care they believe they are receiving.