Journalist Mark Trahant finds that the President's budget increases the budget for Tribal health care, raising spending by 13 percent in fiscal year 2010 and 9 percent in '11. (Go to his report here.) "But this budget does not resolve the contradiction between 'historic underfunding" and the larger reality about federal spending," Trahant writes.
Trahant acknowledges that spending on Indian health care is increasing, but "is it growing fast enough to catch up." He points out that the federal government still spends $3,985 on the health care for every federal prisoner but only $2,130 for each tribal member.
Trahant explains the demands that are still to be met in the Indian health care system. And, he says, the Indian system won't be made right until the entire system is reformed.