Financing American Indian health care: impacts and options for improving access and quality

(1) Indian Health Service (HIS) per patient funding is less than half of national per capita health spending, and declined further between 2003 and 2006. (2) Under-funding of the IHS system has led to explicit rationing of services to American Indian and Alaska Native patients, with many specialized services provided only for "life or limb threatening" conditions. (3) IHS patients report experiencing access barriers and rate the quality of care process substantially lower than do Medicaid beneficiaries, but most indicate they prefer to use IHS for their health care. (4) Options to increase the funding for American Indian and Alaska Native health care exist, but would impose higher costs on federal and state budgets and are unlikely to be feasible in the current economic environment. However, IHS might be able to make certain organizational changes that would increase efficiency and its ability to extend existing funding to cover more services.