America’s failed attempt at a single-payer system, the Indian Health Service

jayparkinsonmd:

Kevin, MD:

Kevin’s post, summarized by Tyler Willis:

Native Americans experience massive social problems on reservations. The IHS is responsible for healthcare on reservations. The IHS is a single payer government health system. Therefore: single payer government health systems don’t work.

Without commenting on the thesis statement, this is a disingenious argument. The rez culture has so many problems that are not even close to being under the purview of it’s health service. Blaming the systemic problems on IHS isn’t right.

I’m sure Kevin, and maybe Jay, will take issue with me replacing his words with a summary. The full post can be found here.