Support for a Permanent Reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians to Include Annual Funding Increases tied to Medical Inflation;

and,

Support for an Amendment to the Public Health Service Act to Permit Tribes and Tribal Organizations to Receive Special Diabetes Program for Indians Funds through SelfDetermination and Self-Governance Contracts and Compacts

WHEREAS, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB), established in 1972, serves all Federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) Tribal governments by advocating for the improvement of health care delivery to AI/ANs, as well as upholding the Federal government’s trust responsibility to AI/AN Tribal governments; and

WHEREAS, the federal government has assumed trust obligations to AI/AN Tribes and Peoples in perpetuity for health care, education, public safety, land management, and other services established through over 300 Treaties signed between sovereign Tribal Nations and the United States that are further enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, Supreme Court case law, federal legislation and regulations, and presidential executive orders; and

WHEREAS, AI/AN Peoples are disproportionately impacted by type II diabetes and are 2.9 times more likely than Whites to be diagnosed with diabetes, 2.5 times more likely than Whites to die from diabetes, and 2.4 times more likely than Whites to be diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD); and

WHEREAS, the Bipartisan Balanced Budget Act of 1997 established the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) under mandatory appropriations for the prevention and treatment of diabetes among AI/AN populations; and

WHEREAS, SDPI is directly responsible for a 54% reduction in ESRD rates among AI/ANs translating to up to 2,600 fewer ESRD cases from 1996 to 2013, and is also responsible for a 50% reduction in rates of diabetic eye disease in that time frame; and

WHEREAS, a 2019 report from the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation found that SDPI saves up to $52 million annually in Medicare expenditures; and