Health

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attitude toward AIs include the increasingly difficult requirements for AI’s to keep the small amount of land they have and the rigid requirements to become a legitimate AI shows the lack of empathy the government has for this group. These acts are subtle and do not clearly show the government’s true feelings toward AIs. One of the bigger factors that shows this lack of empathy\care is the way Healthcare is set-up and treated in regards to the AI community. To begin with the Healthcare system for AI’s is set-up to be inefficient just by looking at the resources and money put into the system. The amount of funding invested into this facet of the Healthcare system is extremely small compared to other services. For example, the amount of money put into the Medicaid completely dwarfs the money that is put into Indian Health Services (IHS). The ratio of how much money per person is invested when comparing Medicaid to IHS is about five to one. This number means five times as much resources are devoted to Medicaid’s success compared to IHS’s. AI clinics are under funded which leads to AI’s receiving poor treatment or in some cases no treatment at all. This in turn leads to an AI population who get more diseases and illnesses then almost every other race furthering the unfair treatment.

What is particularly interesting about this dispersity in funding is that Congress, every fiscal year determines how much they will distribute to each Healthcare service. They must see this unfair distribution of money but simply choose to ignore it. Seeing the statistics on how AI have a much higher chance of having cardiovascular problems and are more prone to suicide than other races but do not try to make a change for the better.This seems like a very clear sign of how the government mistreats the AI population. Learning of this unequal treatment creates confusion, how can the government do this year in and year out with hardly any change? The answer for that is up to some interpretation but I believe that the AI community’s voice has been slowly taken away from them. The consistent poor treatment inflicted on this community has blinded our country from understanding the inequality that is occurring. It is bothersome dwelling on how this treatment can be unchecked for so long. I am interested to further learn about the intricacies of this situation and what is really going on. With a greater understanding of the current IHS environment comes a greater understanding of our Healthcare system in general, something I have not payed much attention to before.

My understanding of what actually occurs daily in our Healthcare system has been very limited. I chose this topic for the reason of I always like to learn and get a firm grasp on important systems currently affecting our country. Our Healthcare system is very complex and messy, I look forward to getting a good understanding on how it functions. It is a tough task to efficiently give medical treatment to approximately 300 million people who all are very different in the care they need and how that care is going to be paid for. Currently it seems like the Healthcare system has a lot of room for improvement, specifically focusing on the distribution of funding so that the majority of American’s are covered equally and not have skewed levels of treatment and fees. I have my work set out for me to try and truly understand how our Healthcare functions.

In conclusion my mind has been opened to many different issues and topics in just a short time span of three weeks. From the idea that race was a recent man made concept, to the mistreatment\misrepresentation of the AI community in regards to Healthcare, to how the actual overall Healthcare system works I have had to adapt a new way of thinking, which is very refreshing. What all these topics had in common were that they challenged my current understanding and process of thinking, and more surprising was how all three of these topics are in some way intermingled and relatable. I now believe that one of the keys to understanding Health in general is that in one way or another all the issues surrounding Health are interconnected and in turn affect each other. By approaching AI health with this new found understanding I will be better suited to make connections between issues and get an accurate representation of what is occurring to American Indians regarding to their