The Myth of Indigenous Healthcare: “Native People Get Free Care”
If you work in Indigenous health, there’s something you may hear from outsiders: “They get free healthcare, don’t they?” Or: “Must be nice to never have to deal with insurance bills.” Or “I don’t understand why there are so many healthcare issues on reservations when they can all go to the doctor for free.” To […]
7 Ways HR Can Support Indigenous Health
If you’re American, you’re definitely familiar with the trifecta that rules our healthcare system: patient-provider-payer. But there’s an invisible fourth player hovering at the edges and that’s Human Resources – which influences everything from our mental health to the kind of care we get to our finances. And HR can have an outsized impact on […]
Climate Change is a Healthcare Issue
It’s Earth Day, which means it’s time for the annual doom and gloom reports on – wait, what? Climate experts are asking us to promote “climate optimism?” Apparently so. There’s still plenty of disaster to worry about, but environmentalist efforts have also paid off in some ways that we can celebrate. A few of these: […]
Heart Health in Tribal Nations
You see them every February: campaigns for American Heart Month reminding us that cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Riding alongside Valentine’s Day ads, we’re told to check our blood pressure, start a fitness routine, and eat healthier. That one person dies from heart disease every 33 seconds. What […]