Smallpox blankets for all
Wednesday, July 1 2009
I’m not willing to read as much as Kevin, MD and Whitecoat into this story about the Indian Health Service for one simple reason: Native Americans* have always gotten the shaft in this country.
Yes, the IHS’s record is shameful and embarrassing – and should be fixed immediately. But I’m just as worried about the Obama administration forcing that kind of health care system on all Americans as I am that they’ll wage war against my people, herd us into a reservation, and hand out infected blankets** to keep us warm – which is to say, I’m not worried at all. And if you think this kind of thing is ancient history, read up on the Indian Trust case. The fact that we don’t do right by the Native Americans doesn’t mean we can’t do right – and it certainly doesn’t mean we can’t design a health care system that works for everyone.
In fact, the relevant comparison here isn’t between IHS and white people health care; it’s between IHS and the care provided by the free market. Both Kevin and Whitecoat ignore the fact that “on the poorest reservations … residents cannot afford health insurance.” The market is failing these people – as it is for millions of other Americans – and government is all the help they have. Clearly it’s not help enough, but they’re much better off with IHS than they would be without it. Without it, they’d have no health care at all. Is that what Kevin and Whitecoat are arguing for?
*Just for the record, I am 1/128th Cherokee.
**Granted, it’s not clear the distribution of smallpox-infected blankets ever actually happened.
Kevin MD lost some credibility with me (I know he is heart broken) over that post on the IHS. He is against a single payer system, and uses the IHS to compare outcomes. What a joke. Taking a small, powerless, decimated patient population and comparing it to the 60 million uninsured in the US is ludicrous.