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Date Posted: 21:01:52 06/14/09 Sun
Author: Bobby N. Harmon
Subject:

PROMISES, PROMISES: Indian Health Care Needs Unmet

"PROMISES, PROMISES: Indian health care needs unmet" - (An Exhibit from CV05-00030 - U.S. Dept of Justice vs Harmon)

June 14, 2009

From: Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU

To: "President Barack Obama" , "U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder" , "David Farmer" , "Steven Guttman" , "Carol K. Muranaka" , "Judge David A. Ezra" , "Judge Kevin S.C. Chang" , "Judge Barry M. Kurren" , "Securities & Exchange Commission Enforcement Division" , "U.S. Treasury Dept. Office of Inspector General" , "Office of Inspector General US Dept of Justice" , "Executive Office for U.S. Trustees" , "Judge Robert Faris" , "SEC Office of The Inspector General" , "Hawaii State Bar Association" , "Charles Goodwin" , "Hugh Jones" , "Insurance Division Fraud Branch" , "Lawrence Reifurth" , "Linda Lingle" , "Jo Ann Uchida" , "Office of Inspector General Civil Rights Complaints" , "Mark Bennett" , "American Arbitration Association" , "Judith Neustadter" , "Benjamin J. Cayetano" , "Lokelani Lindsey" , "ACLU Hawaii" , "All Representatives" , "All Senators" , "Andrew Walden" , "Aon Insurance Managers" , "Arthur Rath" , "Benjamin Kudo" , "Bradley Tamm" , "Carl Morton" , "Charles Hurd" , "David Shapiro" , "Dee Jay Mailer" , "J C Shannon" , "James B Nicholson" , "James B. Farris" , "James Cribley" , "James Wriston" , "Jeffrey Watanabe" , "Jim Dooley" , "Joe Moore" , "John D. Finnegan" , "John Goemans" , "Judson Witham" , "Ken Conklin" , "Lyn Flanigan Anzai" , "Margery Bronster" , "Marsh Affinity Group" , "Michael N. Tanoue" , "Michelle Tucker" , "Nathan Aipa" , "Paul Alston" , "Randall Roth" , "Rick Daysog" , "Robert Bruce Graham" , "Robin Campaniano" , "Samuel P. King" , "William K Slate" , "Jim Terrack" , "Rocco Sansone" , "Ted Pettit" , "Laura Thielen" , "Vaughn & Lynda Robinson" , "Rebecca Christie" , "Catbird" , "James Duca" , "Ian Lind" , "Roy F. Hughes" , "Malia Zimmerman" , "Jack Cashill" , "Marshall Chriswell" , "Laser Haas" , "Lucy Komisar" , "Democrats.com" , "Debra Sweet" , "Jane Kirtley" , "John Jubinsky" , "Yamil Berard" , "Global Exchange" , "William K. Black" , "Carole Williams" , "Susan Tius" , "Human Rights in China" , "Michelle Malkin" , "Phil J. Berg" , "Amnesty International U.S.A." , "Michael Moore" , "California Anti-SLAPP Project" , "Thomas Fitton" , "Ron Branson" , "ACLU of Kentucky" , "ACLU Online" , "Louanne Kam"

PROMISES, PROMISES: Indian health care needs unmet

BY MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press

CROW AGENCY, Mont. � Ta'Shon Rain Little Light, a happy little girl who loved to dance and dress up in traditional American Indian clothes, had stopped eating and walking. She complained constantly to her mother that her stomach hurt.

When Stephanie Little Light took her daughter to the Indian Health Service clinic in this wind-swept and remote corner of Montana, they told her the 5-year-old was depressed.

Ta'Shon's pain rapidly worsened and she visited the clinic about 10 more times over several months before her lung collapsed and she was airlifted to a children's hospital in Denver. There she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, confirming the suspicions of family members.

A few weeks later, a charity sent the whole family to Disney World so Ta'Shon could see Cinderella's Castle, her biggest dream. She never got to see the castle, though. She died in her hotel bed soon after the family arrived in Florida.

"Maybe it would have been treatable," says her great-aunt, Ada White, as she stoically recounts the last few months of Ta'Shon's short life. Stephanie Little Light cries as she recalls how she once forced her daughter to walk when she was in pain because the doctors told her it was all in the little girl's head.

Ta'Shon's story is not unique in the Indian Health Service system, which serves almost 2 million American Indians in 35 states.

On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.

Wealthier tribes can supplement the federal health service budget with their own money. But poorer tribes, often those on the most remote reservations, far away from city hospitals, are stuck with grossly substandard care. The agency itself describes a "rationed health care system."

The sad fact is an old fact, too.

The U.S. has an obligation, based on a 1787 agreement between tribes and the government, to provide American Indians with free health care on reservations. But that promise has not been kept. About one-third more is spent per capita on health care for felons in federal prison, according to 2005 data from the health service.

In Washington, a few lawmakers have tried to bring attention to the broken system as Congress attempts to improve health care for millions of other Americans. But tightening budgets and the relatively small size of the American Indian population have worked against them.

"It is heartbreaking to imagine that our leaders in Washington do not care, so I must believe that they do not know," Joe Garcia, president of the National Congress of American Indians, said in his annual state of Indian nations' address in February.
___

When it comes to health and disease in Indian country, the statistics are staggering.

American Indians have an infant death rate that is 40 percent higher than the rate for whites. They are twice as likely to die from diabetes, 60 percent more likely to have a stroke, 30 percent more likely to have high blood pressure and 20 percent more likely to have heart disease.

American Indians have disproportionately high death rates from unintentional injuries and suicide, and a high prevalence of risk factors for obesity, substance abuse, sudden infant death syndrome, teenage pregnancy, liver disease and hepatitis.

While campaigning on Indian reservations, presidential candidate Barack Obama cited this statistic: After Haiti, men on the impoverished Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota have the lowest life expectancy in the Western Hemisphere....

The growing political clout of some remote reservations may bring some attention to health care woes. Last year's Democratic presidential primary played out in part in the Dakotas and Montana, where both Obama and Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first presidential candidates to aggressively campaign on American Indian reservations there.

Both politicians promised better health care....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090614/ap_on_go_ot/us_health_care_s_forgotten

http://www.kycbs.net/Indian-Health-Care.mht

* * * * *

June 14, 2009

Dear President Obama, Attorney General Holder, Trustee Farmer, Mr. Guttman, Ms. Neustadter, Judge Kevin Chang, Judge David Ezra, and All Concerned:

I am adding the subject Exhibit as it directly relates to this lawsuit which violates my Constitutional Rights of Free Speech and a Fair Trial, and Federal and Hawaii Anti-SLAPP statutes.

You will find additional information on-line at:

http://www.kycbs.net/IndianAffairs.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Abramoff-Jack.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Akaka-Daniel.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Inouye-Dan.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Lingle-Linda.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/CV05-00030-Witness-Norton-Gale.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Bishop.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Methane.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/OHA.htm

In view of all the facts that I have presented in this and hundreds of other Exhibits and witness descriptions, it is beyond comprehension that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; Assistant U.S. Trustees Curtis Ching, Gayle Lau and Carol Muranaka; Judges Eden Hifo (fka Bambi Weil), Kevin Chang, David Ezra, Barry Kurren, Lloyd King and Robert Faris; Trustees Mary Lou Woo, James Nicholson and David C. Farmer; American Arbitration Association arbitrator Judith Neustadter Fuqua, attorney Steven Guttman, and others, can still claim that they were non-conflicted, fair, impartial, and unbiased in this case.

Mr. Farmer and Mr. Guttman, in spite of all this factual evidence (not just "political opinions" or "conspiracy theories" as you have previously alleged), I am again asking that we attempt to reach a global settlement of this matter through confidential negotiation or mediation rather than continuing these costly and seemingly-endless court proceedings.

However, if you, and your insurance carriers, are still not willing to attempt to negotiate or mediate a settlement, then I ask that you perform your mandated review of this new Exhibit in accordance with Judge Ezra's Order, and advise me if you find it contains any so-called "protected subject matter", and whether or not you intend to OBJECT to my filing a Motion to reopen this case.

I respectfully request your immediate reply. If I do not receive a response from you or your insurance carrier within 15 days, I will assume that you have found no "PSM" in these updated pages, and that you will NOT file any objections to my Motion.

Very truly yours,

Bobby N. Harmon, CPCU, ARM

Additional References:
http://www.kycbs.net/
http://www.kycbs.net/Apartheid-Hawaii.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Broken-Trust-Book.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Confessions.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Freedom-To-Sing.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/JUSTICE.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Lost-Generations.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/RICO-in-Paradise.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/SLAPP.htm
http://www.kycbs.net/Whistler.htm
http://voy.com/129276/
http://whistlersongs.blogspot.com
http://www.zoominfo.com/Search/ReferencesView.aspx?PersonID=912950374

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