Action Alert: Contact Congress to Increase Funding for Urban Indian Health TODAY

Dear Urban Indian Health Advocates,

We need your help contacting Congress to support Urban Indian Organizations!

Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) are leading a letter to the Chair and Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. This subcommittee appropriates funding for the Indian Health Service and for Urban Indian Organizations.

The letter calls for an increase in funding of a minimum of $200.5 million for urban Indian health. This funding increase is necessary to address the chronic underfunding UIOs have experienced, particularly during a global pandemic that is killing Natives at the highest rates worldwide. This amount also reflects the recommendation made by the Tribal Budget Formulation Working Group (TBFWG). To ensure that the urban Indian health line item receives as much support as possible, we encourage you to contact your Member of Congress and request that they sign on to the Gallego-Grijalva Urban Indian Health letter by the deadline of April 23.

You can use the text below as a template to call and/or email to your Member of Congress. If you can please, call and email your representative. You can find your representative here.

Thank you for your leadership. Your outreach on this is invaluable to providing greater access to health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives in urban areas.

Sincerely,

NCUIH

STEPS TO CONTACT CONGRESS

• Step 1: Copy the email below.
• Step 2: Find your representative here.
• Step 3: Paste the email into the form and send. Please contact Meredith Raimondi (policy@ncuih.org) with questions.

Email to Your Member of Congress

Dear Representative,

As an urban Indian health advocate, I respectfully request you sign on to the Gallego-Grijalva letter to the House Committee on Appropriations in support of increasing the urban Indian health line item to $200.5 million for FY22.

As of the 2010 Census, it was reported that over 70% of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) reside in cities. There are 41 Urban Indian Organizations (UIOs) that provide health care through the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to reach this population as part of the government’s trust responsibility to all AI/AN people.

As an integral part of the AI/AN health care delivery system, UIOs rely on funding from IHS to provide care to urban AI/AN people. UIOs depend on scarce federal resources to provide services to our AI/AN patients at the rate of only $672 per patient compared with the national average of over $11,000 per patient. The primary source of funding for UIOs is the urban Indian health line item. The letter requests increasing funding to at least $200.5 million, which reflects the recommendation made by the Tribal Budget Formulation Working Group (TBFWG) for FY 2022. Because of the pandemic, UIOs are serving record patients through vaccination and testing clinics along with all regular operations.

To sign, on please contact Ms. Mariel Jorgensen (Mariel.Jorgensen@mail.house.gov) from Rep. Gallego’s office by April 23.

Thank you for your leadership and your commitment to upholding the United States trust responsibility.

Sincerely,

YOUR NAME

SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook

Post your support on your Facebook.

• Example post:
• Urban Indian Organizations receive just $672 per patient compared with the over $11,000 per patient national average. You can make a difference! Call your Representative to sign on the Gallego-Grijalva Urban Indian Health Funding letter by April 23.

TWITTER

From your Twitter account, tweet to your Member of Congress.

• Find your Member of Congress here.
• Example tweet:

Dear [@ Member’s handle], please sign on to Gallego Grijalva letter for $200.5 million for #urbanIndianhealth in FY22 @ncuih_official.