NCUIH Advocates for Engagement with Native Communities in Shaping New Healthy People 2030 Objectives

On October 31, 2024, the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH) submitted written comments in response to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) Announcement of Solicitation of Written Comments on Proposed Healthy People 2030 Objectives. In these comments, NCUIH urged the ODPHP to reconsider three recommendations previously proposed by NCUIH to ODPHP in written comments submitted on November 20, 2023. These recommendations are:

• Engage with the American Indian and Alaska Native community through Tribal Consultation and Urban Confer.
• Ensure ODPHP is engaging with the HHS Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee on Healthy People 2030 additional Objectives.
• Ensure that an IHS representative is on each of the objective workgroups.

The federal trust responsibility requires that ODPHP incorporate the perspective of American Indian and Alaska Native communities in development of Healthy People 2030 objectives. NCUIH’s recommendations will help fulfill this requirement and ensure that the Healthy People 2030 objectives address the health needs and priorities of the Indian health system.

Background on Healthy People 2030

Healthy People 2030 identifies public health priorities to help individuals, organizations, and communities across the United States improve health and well-being. Healthy People 2030 is the initiative’s fifth iteration, and it builds on the knowledge gained from previous iterations, which span over four decades. On October 1, 2024, HHS published an Announcement of Solicitation of Written Comments on Proposed Healthy People 2030 Objectives. In this announcement, HHS solicited written comments from the public on the proposed addition of twelve (12) new objectives to the current set of Healthy People 2030 objectives. The twelve proposed objectives were developed by Healthy People topic area workgroups led by various agencies within the Federal Government. The new objectives are:

1. Increase the proportion of people with chronic kidney disease and diabetes who receive glucose-lowering medications based on the most recent guidelines. This objective is new to Healthy People 2030.
2. Increase the proportion of people with chronic kidney disease and severe albuminuria who receive glucose-lowering medications based on the most recent guidelines.
3. Increase the proportion of medical schools that include environmental health content in a required learning experience.
4. Increase the proportion of undergraduate nursing and graduate nurse practitioner training programs that include environmental health content in a required learning experience.
5. Increase the proportion of physician assistant (PA) training programs that include environmental health content in a required learning experience.
6. Increase the proportion of colleges and schools of pharmacy with Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree programs that include environmental health content in a required learning experience.
7. Increase the proportion of colleges and schools of dentistry with Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) and/or Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degree programs that include environmental health content in a required learning experience.
8. Reduce deaths related to heat. This objective is currently a development objective, EH-D02.
9. Increase the proportion of adults with communication disorders of voice, swallowing, speech, or language who have seen a health care specialist for evaluation or treatment in the past 12 months.
10. Increase the proportion of pregnant women who receive 1 dose of the tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine during pregnancy.
11. Increase the proportion of adults who receive the recommended age-appropriate vaccine.
12. Reduce the rate of hypertension in pregnancy (preexisting and pregnancy-associated hypertension) among delivery hospitalizations.

Past NCUIH Advocacy on Healthy People 2030

Prior to the comments submitted on October 31, NCUIH submitted two other written comments to HHS in order to ensure that the Healthy People 2030 objectives address the health needs and priorities of the Indian health system.

First, on October 31, 2023, NCUIH recommended that HHS Office of Minority Health’s (OMH) consider the health needs of American Indian and Alaska Native people living in urban areas when developing the Healthy People 2030 Leading Health Indicators Initiative (LHII) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) and urged OMH to facilitate partnerships between grantees and UIOs to ensure American Indians and Alaska Natives can be served by the LHII no matter where they reside.

Second, on November 20, 2023, NCUIH recommended that HHS ODPHP consider the unique needs of Native communities when advancing current objectives and developing future objectives to monitor, address, and advance Healthy People 2030’s overarching goals.

Next Steps

NCUIH will continue to monitor changes to Healthy People 2030 and engage with HHS to ensure that the initiative’s objectives address the health needs and priorities of the Indian health system.