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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Let's Hope This is Just One Serious Temporary Setback

Easternband.com has posted that the tribal Diabetes Program is out of money. Normally when I read some things on this site, I wait to see what pans out. This time the admin of that site, Bill Killian, has experienced it himself after it was brought to light. Despite being dangerously low on insulin, his refill was left out of his regular meds when he picked them up from his dialysis appointment. Bill's always been honest with me, even with heated disagreements. So I have no reason to doubt this.
I hope this is just a temporary setback. Too many tribal members have no health insurance, and while some who don't can get Medicaid, there's still a huge gap between those who can get insurance and those whose income is low enough to qualify for Medicaid. It bears repeating that far too many tribal members have diabetes. Even a temporary setback is disastrous.
There is Indian Health Service, however, if tribal members who depended upon the tribal diabetes program had some kind of warning ahead of time, those tribal members could've prepared and made arrangements with Cherokee Indian Hospital. But tribal government seems to prefer giving tribal members the illusion that everything is wonderful rather than tell them the truth, even if it means jeopardizing their lives.
This is inexcusable. Tribal government needs to address this issue immediately, and I mean on Monday. If they don't, then every Tribal Council member needs to be removed from office, and Larry Blythe and Michell Hicks definitely don't deserve third terms.

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