• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
California Health Advocates

California Health Advocates

  • Contact
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Contact
    • Our Team
    • Mission
    • Education Services
    • About HICAP
    • Press
    • Testimonials
  • MEDICARE COUNSELING
  • Fact Sheets
  • Topics
    • The Basics
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Low-Income Help
    • Medigap
    • Medicare Advantage
    • Other Health Insurance
    • Appeals
    • Billing & Claims
    • Disabilities
    • Long-Term Care
    • Tribal Nations & Medicare
    • Health Care Reform
    • Advocacy & Policy
    • Glossary
  • Fraud & Abuse
  • Blog
  • Donate

American Rescue Plan Gives Big to Native Communities

California Health Advocates > News > Health Care Disparities > American Rescue Plan Gives Big to Native Communities

Posted by Karen Fletcher on April 28, 2021

older Navajo woman standing in sunshine

Last month, Congress approved a record amount of money for Native American tribes in the American Rescue Plan. This plan allocates $31 billion to serve tribal communities, including $20 billion to tribal governments, $6 billion to bolster health care systems, and more than $1 billion for housing. This is one of the biggest single investments in history that the federal government has ever made directly to indigenous people. This is a BIG step in the right direction.

Nick Tilsen from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, who is the founder and CEO of NDN Collective and an activist for tribal rights over lands, spoke about this good news and investment into native communities on PBS. He said it is a “momentous step forward” and that many are very “happy about the big investments going to tribes.” And, to keep this good momentum going forward, Tilsen said the federal government needs to changes its relationship with indigenous people. “If the federal government changed its relationship to Native people and started focusing on a free and prior informed consent,” said Tilsen, “what would end up happening is the entire relationship with tribal nations and sovereign nations would change, because you would no longer see things like pipelines built through our lands, or extractive industries built through our lands, or decisions made about indigenous people without our consent…This investment [the American Rescue Plan] begins to open a conversation about entering into a brand-new policy era.”

California Health Advocates is honored to have been working with the San Miguel Band of Mission Indians and Yocha Dehe Winton Nation the last several years building collaborative relationships with various tribal leaders, tribal communities and providing training on Medicare benefits and rights and tools to fight Medicare fraud to their elders, families and providers. We are extremely happy to see this recent large investment into our country’s indigenous peoples, their communities, health care, housing and tribal governments, and also support this opening of a new, more just policy era.

Read more: Why Native Americans are excited about the American Rescue Plan and their future.

Filed Under: COVID-19, Health Care Disparities, Low-Income help, News, Professionals, Resources Tagged With: american rescue plan, covid, health care, Medicare, native americans

Previous Post: « New Guidance on Visitation Rights for Nursing Home Residents
Next Post: Be Mindful of Sharing Your COVID Vaccine Card »

About Karen Fletcher

Our blogger Karen J. Fletcher is CHA's publications consultant. She provides technical expertise, writing and research on Medicare, health disparities and other health care issues. With a Masters in Public Health from UC Berkeley, she serves in health advocacy as a trainer and consultant. See her current articles.

Related Posts

  • Golden State Grant Provides Relief for Seniors & People with Disabilities on SSI
  • Do You or Someone You Know Need Internet Access? Emergency Broadband Benefit May Help
  • COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Available
  • Biden Administration’s 2022 Budget Request Invests in Older Americans

Primary Sidebar

Change Text Size

  • 100%  110%  120%  130%  

News & Blog Categories

  • Medicare Advantage
  • Low-Income help
  • Medicare & Disabilities
  • Medicare Basics
  • Prescription Drugs
  • Medicare & Other Health Insurance
  • Medicare Billings, Claims & Appeals
  • Health Care Disparities
  • Fraud & Abuse

—

  • COVID-19
  • Resources
  • Health Care Reform
  • Long-Term Care
  • CHA News

—

  • Advocacy & Policy
  • Letters and Comments to Policymakers
  • Legislative and Congressional Testimony
  • Policy Briefs

Send Us Comment

Do you have comments or concerns about your Medicare coverage? Issues regarding getting your needed prescriptions from your Part D plan, or a Medicare Advantage plan representative's marketing practices? Let us know at comments@cahealthadvocates.org.

We are dedicated to making Medicare's program work well for all beneficiaries. Your feedback from your own or your client's concerns and experiences with Medicare, will guide our Medicare advocacy efforts with key policy and decision-makers in both California and nationally with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Congress.

Archives

Donate Today

Footer

Sign up for our newsletter

Choose the news you'd like to receive

Important Links

  • About Us
  • Fact Sheets
  • Blog
  • Donate
  • Contact
  • Privacy Notice
  • Cookie Policy
  • Accessibility Statement

Follow Us

Copyright © 2022 · California Health Advocates · Web Design by TWK Web and Print Design · Log in