Tom Coburn: “A large portion of them are Medicaid eligible. As a matter of fact, 27 percent of the funds that go into IHS are people…”

“A large portion of them are Medicaid eligible. As a matter of fact, 27 percent of the funds that go into IHS are people from Medicaid. If they are Medicaid eligible, then they are eligible for every one of these programs. A large portion are Medicare eligible. A large portion of money that comes into IHS comes from Medicare, and they are also eligible under that. So the majority of our Native American population already have these services available to them under two other programs. The other question I would ask through the Chair of the chairman is-- there are other clinics and IHS facilities, I believe, and please correct me, that are being run well and that will be able to utilize these services for that smaller portion of Native Americans because they will have the funds because they are meeting basic core medical needs now. My amendment doesn't take that away. It just says if you are in an IHS clinic and over half of them already have these services available through another government program, why would we add that when we are not taking care of the diabetes, the dialysis, and every other thing we have? My question to the chairman is--I would love for him to consider that this is a better way to go rather than blanketly treating everybody the same and that we have to prioritize, and that by having IHS Directors make that priority--in different areas, that is true--in terms of what goes through the tribal government, what we will get is better care.”