Byron Dorgan: “Let me explain that the legislation, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, does a number of things. We have talked…”

“Let me explain that the legislation, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, does a number of things. We have talked about the urgency for it, but it expands cancer screenings, for example; it expands monitoring and prevention programs for communicable and infectious diseases; it expands recruitment and scholarship programs for those nurses and doctors who serve American Indians; it seeks to address the epidemic of teenage suicides on some Indian reservations; it enhances and expands the current diabetes screening efforts; it tries to address the shortage of health care professionals; provides for home- and community-based services and hospice care; also authorizes convenient care services; and authorizes programs to address domestic violence and sexual abuse. In short, it is a piece of legislation that attempts to modernize the Indian health care system that has been waiting to be reauthorized now for 8 years. So this is a piece of legislation that I think is going to make a difference in the lives of Americans who have expected and have been promised good health care and have, for a long time, not received it.”