"President Barack Obama is hosting a health care summit Thursday at the Blair House. It will be televised live. We can all watch and judge the proposals for ourselves. That transparency is an ideal opportunity for the president, Democrats and Republicans to put their best ideas forward and debate different approaches to solving the health care crisis.

There is another issue of common ground that probably won’t get the attention it deserves on Thursday: Improving the Indian health system. This is clearly a government obligation and one where conservatives and liberals alike say the government has failed to live up to its promises. In an ideal world, that would mean full funding of the Indian Health Service.

But this week perhaps the best that can be done is an agreement to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. The president’s proposal includes this provision – as does both the Senate and the House bills. It should be an easy sell.

Will Republicans agree? A generation ago the original Indian Health Care Improvement Act had bipartisan support in Congress and was signed into law by President Gerald Ford."

Get the Story:
Finding Blair House consensus with the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (Mark Trahant 2/22)

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