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AAP News Vol. 14 No. 7 July 1998, p. 4 © 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics
At the Indian Health Service (IHS) hospital in Belcourt, N.D., Joann Bodurtha, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP, spent two years working with and witnessing the serious rationing of health care for Native American children. An appeal for a hearing assessment and aids for a 2-year-old, for example, competed with another doctor's request for prostate surgery for a 60-year-old. Congress is deliberating over the administration's proposed fiscal year (FY) 1999 budget, which, according to the Academy, fails to provide adequate increases in the IHS budget. The IHS and tribal health programs usually are the sole source of direct medical services to American Indian and Alaska Native children.
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