By Alex Moore
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), American Indians and Alaska Natives experience severe health disparities compared to the general U.S. population and are more likely to struggle with obesity, diabetes, cancer, mental illnesses, and other afflictions. While many Indigenous people have long seen traditional healthcare practices as key to improving these outcomes, Medicare has never covered them.
Luckily, that’s changing. In October, CMS made a rule change that will allow Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to cover traditional healthcare practices provided by Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities, tribal facilities, and Urban Indian Organizations (UIOs).
IHS director Roselyn Tso, who is a member of the Navajo Nation, lauded the policy update. “American Indian and Alaska Natives have been endowed by our ancestors a deep and priceless wealth of traditional healing knowledge,” she said in a CMS press release. “We appreciate the Administration’s commitment to move forward with covering this care, and IHS is honored to be a partner in this essential work.”
CMS expects the change to primarily benefit tribal communities in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Oregon, and it will have a big impact. IHS alone is the 17th-largest healthcare system in the U.S. Additionally, Medicare and CHIP are important sources of health coverage for American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to the health-focused think tank KFF. Beyond just covering older members of these communities, the programs cover about 23 percent of nonelderly American Indians and Alaska Natives.
