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Politico
5 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Many American Indians put their faith in RFK Jr. They're starting to lose it.
His apparent earnestness prompted the Coalition of Large Tribes, whose members include the Navajo and Blackfeet nations and the Oglala Sioux, to call him 'the most qualified nominee there has ever been, from any Administration, to carry that mantle of responsibility' three weeks before the Senate confirmed him to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. But with each zealous statement from Kennedy, American Indians leaders have wondered when they'll hear a detailed plan, and they point to President Donald Trump's budget proposal as an example where the administration's actions haven't matched Kennedy's rhetoric. 'We're looking at the lives of real people, Indian people,' said Phyllis Davis, chair of the Great Lakes Area Tribal Health Board. 'I don't know if anybody really knows him well enough to understand what he wants to do, and I wish — for him — that he took more time to learn more about who we are.' A spokesperson for Kennedy said Americans Indians needn't worry. 'HHS and Secretary Kennedy remain fully committed to supporting the Indian Health Service and its mission to provide high-quality, culturally competent care to American Indian and Alaska Native communities,' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO in an email. 'The Department will continue working closely with Tribal Nations to protect health care access and to strengthen delivery systems across Indian Country.' Congress committed to provide American Indians health care a century ago and created the Indian Health Service within HHS to manage it 70 years ago. By every important metric, it has failed. American Indians live, on average, around a decade less than other Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy has said he's sincere about changing that. 'It's been an issue that I've been committed to my whole life,' Kennedy told Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) at a recent House budget hearing, adding that he'd shielded the IHS from cuts led by Trump's so-called Department of Government Efficiency and offered jobs to some of those DOGE had targeted for termination at the IHS. The agency, he said, was 'chronically understaffed' and needed the help. But when Trump released his proposed budget for 2026, some Native leaders were disappointed. Unlike the deep cuts the budget called for at other health agencies, the IHS would get a $1 billion increase if Congress agrees, most of which would go toward reimbursing tribes for administrative and facility costs. Still, tribal health leaders told POLITICO that real improvement would take tens of billions more. The budget proposal also did not include advance appropriations for the IHS — the government has, in recent years, provided the tribes access to their funds early — a provision tribal leaders say helps prevent disruptions to care during government shutdowns. They also said other programs Republicans are cutting are likely to have a negative impact on their health. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on the Fourth of July slashes more than $1 trillion over a decade in health care spending, mostly from Medicaid, the federal-state insurer of low-income people on which many American Indians rely. 'Tribes rely on these other agencies to fill the gaps where IHS cannot,' said Jerilyn Church, CEO of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders' Health Board, citing years of inadequate funding. 'In the spotlight' Native people are more likely than others in the U.S. to die from a host of chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease, cirrhosis, stroke, pneumonia, kidney disease and hypertension. During his 2024 presidential campaign, before he dropped out and endorsed Trump, Kennedy courted the tribes, spending time with Native people and listening to their concerns. He recalled his namesake father, who was a New York senator and attorney general, and uncle Edward, who served 47 years as a Massachusetts Democrat in the Senate, and their advocacy for American Indians. And he brought up his own involvement in the founding of the newspaper Indian Country Today. During his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski said Kennedy had previously committed to ' immediately triple the budget to support tribes ' and asked for some details. Kennedy didn't have many. But he said he wanted to designate a Native American as an assistant secretary and that he enjoyed traveling in Alaska. Last month, he swore in Mark Cruz — a citizen of the Klamath Tribes — as senior adviser to the secretary. Some tribal leaders say, despite some concerns, they're happy with Kennedy so far. That includes OJ Semans Sr., executive director of the Coalition of Large Tribes that endorsed Kennedy's appointment as Health secretary in January. 'He put IHS in the spotlight nationally,' Semans told POLITICO. 'Sometimes we don't get as much and sometimes we get more, but it's having the discussion that counts.' The IHS supports 21 hospitals, 53 health centers and 25 health stations, and provides care to about 2.8 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Some facilities are managed by the federal government, while some are overseen by tribes. It has suffered from underfunding for years, and slight increases to its budget have not kept up with health care inflation over the past few decades, according to a peer-reviewed article published in the American Journal of Public Health. The IHS is unable to fully fund some of its facilities and the care provided there, and the difference must be made up by billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. Cuts to Medicaid in the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will likely deliver a blow to tribal health. A 2017 analysis by the health care think tank KFF found that Medicaid provides coverage to more than 1 in 4 nonelderly American Indian and Alaska Native adults and half of Native children. Nixon told POLITICO that the package 'focuses on eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse to ensure Medicaid remains strong, sustainable, and effective for the people who rely on it, including Tribal communities.' The president's budget proposes funding the IHS at $8.1 billion, a slight increase from the previous year. But the National Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup — a group of tribal representatives that provide budgetary guidance to the IHS — regularly requests more than five times that after considering how much money fully funding the IHS would require. That's roughly what it would cost to 'for all tribes in the United States to receive 100 percent of what they need to provide care for their citizens that they serve,' said Davis, who has been part of the work group for more than 10 years representing the Bemidji, Minnesota, area. '[Trump's budget request for IHS] is still an inadequate dollar amount that keeps programs running, but not in a way that can provide comprehensive and really robust programs and … consistently serve health care needs and eliminate disparities,' Davis said. IHS transfers stall At the start of April, HHS sent letters to officials at the CDC, National Institutes of Health, and Food and Drug Administration offering a 'voluntary' transfer to the IHS and putting them immediately on administrative leave. Kennedy has said he aims to staff up the IHS and touted the transfers as a way to make that happen. But three months later, four of those former officials told POLITICO that they are still on administrative leave — collecting their salaries — with no more information about their futures. The four were granted anonymity for fear of retribution from the administration. The original offer listed several locations that the officials, mainly based around Washington or Atlanta, could relocate to, including Alaska and Montana. At the time, some public health officials speculated that the administration was using the offers as a way to prompt high-paid officials to quit. 'It's a mixture of incompetence and ill intent,' one of the four said recently about the offers. Nixon pushed back on the idea that the offers were meant to push officials out. 'To address staffing needs and support the IHS in fulfilling its mission, HHS invited certain individuals to consider positions within the IHS,' he said. While the IHS has suffered from understaffing for decades, the agency mainly needs more physicians and nurses, while many of the HHS officials who received offers were running divisions or centers within the agency — not working with patients. Many of the officials who received the offer responded with questions about job description, salary and relocation — but most received no response, said the people, citing their own experiences and conversations with colleagues. In May, some of the officials received an email or, in some cases, a letter requesting that they submit an updated resume so the department could consider where to place them in the IHS. But since submitting the resumes, they have not received any more information, they said. In response to a question about the stalled transfers, Nixon noted that legal challenges have held up the HHS reorganization. While the IHS would see a slight increase if Congress passes Trump's budget, other HHS programs that supported tribal health would be cut. That includes the CDC's Healthy Tribes program — which, through cooperative agreements, aims to help prevent chronic disease among American Indians and Alaska Natives. In April, nearly all of the CDC staff working on the Healthy Tribes program were placed on administrative leave pending termination, two people who had worked on the program and were granted anonymity for fear of retribution said. '[Healthy Tribes] was born out of input from tribal leaders and tribal public health advocates, and it was designed to strengthen cultural connections, prevent chronic disease, and improve overall health and wellness using a holistic approach,' said one of the people. 'Historical trauma has resulted in the deliberate erasure of cultural practices and Indigenous ways of knowing. This, culminated with current systemic and institutionalized inequities, continually perpetuate the non-medical factors that influence health, preventing people from living healthy lives.' The program oversees two cooperative agreements that funnel millions of dollars to American Indian and Alaska Native communities to help them create programs to prevent chronic diseases — a blend of two topics Kennedy has said are top priorities:Native health and chronic illness. That includes things like Indigenous community gardens to make produce and healthy foods more accessible. The third cooperative agreement provides funding to help the IHS pay for Tribal Epidemiology Centers, which investigate diseases and respond to public health emergencies. The agreement provides roughly $6.8 million every year to the 12 centers. None of the three cooperative agreements — which, combined, totaled more than $30 million yearly — are included in Trump's budget request, though the congressional justification for the Administration for a Healthy America, a new entity the administration plans to create to centralize 'health resources for low-income Americans,' sets aside $19 million 'for tribes, tribal organizations, urban Indian health organizations, and health service providers to tribes serving rural communities experiencing poor chronic disease and maternal health outcomes.' The AHA congressional justification also proposes a new program to address mental health and substance abuse disorders in tribal communities — but provides little information about how it would operate. 'I know [Kennedy] and the Kennedy family — say they have a commitment — to tribal populations and American Indians, but it's not fully evident that that is the case,' said one of the CDC staffers who'd worked on the Healthy Tribes program. 'I get the impression that this administration says one thing, but is actually doing another.'
Politico
5 days ago
- Health
- Politico
RFK Jr. promised tribes help was on the way. They're still waiting.
The agency, he said, was 'chronically understaffed' and needed the help. But when Trump released his proposed budget for 2026, some Native leaders were disappointed. Unlike the deep cuts the budget called for at other health agencies, the IHS would get a $1 billion increase if Congress agrees, most of which would go towards reimbursing tribes for administrative and facility costs. Still, tribal health leaders told POLITICO that real improvement would take tens of billions more. The budget proposal also did not include advance appropriations for IHS — the government has, in recent years, provided the tribes access to their funds early — a provision tribal leaders say helps prevent disruptions to care during government shutdowns. They also said other programs Republicans are cutting are likely to have a negative impact on their health. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Trump signed on the 4th of July slashes more than $1 trillion over a decade in health care spending, mostly from Medicaid, the federal-state insurer of low-income people on which many American Indians rely. 'Tribes rely on these other agencies to fill the gaps where IHS cannot,' said Jerilyn Church, chief executive officer of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders' Health Board, citing years of inadequate funding. 'In the spotlight' Native people are more likely than others in the U.S. to die from a host of chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes, chronic lower respiratory disease, cirrhosis, stroke, pneumonia, kidney disease and hypertension. During his 2024 presidential campaign, before he dropped out and endorsed Trump, Kennedy courted the tribes, spending time with Native people and listening to their concerns. He recalled his namesake father, who was a New York senator and attorney general, and uncle Edward, who served 47 years as a Massachusetts Democrat in the Senate, and their advocacy for American Indians. And he brought up his own involvement in the founding of the newspaper Indian Country Today. During his Senate confirmation hearing in February, Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski said Kennedy had previously committed to 'immediately triple the budget to support tribes' and asked for some details. Kennedy didn't have many. But he said he wanted to designate a Native American as an assistant secretary and that he enjoyed traveling in Alaska. Last month, he swore in Mark Cruz — a citizen of the Klamath Tribes — as senior adviser to the secretary. Some tribal leaders say, despite some concerns, they're happy with Kennedy so far. That includes OJ Semans Sr., executive director of the Coalition of Large Tribes that endorsed Kennedy's appointment as health secretary in January. 'He put IHS in the spotlight nationally,' Semans told POLITICO. 'Sometimes we don't get as much and sometimes we get more, but it's having the discussion that counts.' IHS supports 21 hospitals, 53 health centers, and 25 health stations, and provides care to about 2.8 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives. Some facilities are managed by the federal government, while some are overseen by tribes. The Indian Health Service, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services, has funded Native health care for 70 years. | Felicia Fonseca/AP It has suffered from underfunding for years, and slight increases to its budget have not kept up with health care inflation over the past few decades, according to a peer-reviewed article published in the American Journal of Public Health. IHS is unable to fully fund some of its facilities and the care provided there, and the difference must be made up by billing Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers.
Politico
5 days ago
- Health
- Politico
Tribes still waiting on Kennedy's health promises
Presented by Driving the Day WHAT'S THE PLAN? Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly said that he wants to fix the way the government provides care to American Indians and Alaska Natives. He has yet to explain how. Whenever he's been asked about tribal health care during congressional hearings, he's become impassioned about the need to do better by America's Indigenous people. He's stressed his famous family's long history of concern and his involvement in founding a newspaper that covers tribes. But, in his first few months as health secretary, he has failed to outline a comprehensive plan that would drastically improve Native American health. Some leaders in tribal health care are noticing. Still waiting: 'We're looking at the lives of real people, Indian people,' said Phyllis Davis, chair of the Great Lakes Area Tribal Health Board. 'I don't know if anybody really knows him well enough to understand what he wants to do, and I wish — for him — that he took more time to learn more about who we are.' HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon told POLITICO that 'HHS and Secretary Kennedy remain fully committed to supporting the Indian Health Service and its mission to provide high-quality, culturally competent care to American Indian and Alaska Native communities,' noting that HHS will continue to work with tribes to improve their health care. The budget request: When Trump released his proposed budget for 2026, some Native leaders were disappointed. Unlike the deep cuts the budget called for at other health agencies, the IHS would receive a $1 billion increase if Congress agrees, with most of the funds going toward reimbursing tribes for administrative and facility costs. Still, tribal health leaders told POLITICO that real improvement would take tens of billions more. The budget proposal also didn't include advance appropriations for IHS — the government has, in recent years, provided the tribes with early access to their funds — a provision tribal leaders say helps prevent disruptions to care during government shutdowns. They also said other programs Republicans are cutting will likely have a negative impact on their health. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act that Trump signed on the Fourth of July slashes more than $1 trillion over a decade in health care spending, mostly from Medicaid, the federal-state insurer of low-income people, which many American Indians rely on. And the administration sent termination notices to nearly everyone working on a program at the CDC to improve chronic disease in Native Americans. 'Tribes rely on these other agencies to fill the gaps where IHS cannot,' said Jerilyn Church, CEO of the Great Plains Tribal Leaders' Health Board, citing years of inadequate funding. WELCOME TO THURSDAY PULSE. If you're not up to date on the RFK Jr./ostrich debacle, I must recommend this story. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to khooper@ and sgardner@ and follow along @kelhoops and @sophie_gardnerj. At the White House A NEW ADDITION TO SCHEDULE 1 — President Donald Trump signed a bill into law Wednesday that Congressional Republicans say will make it easier to jail and prosecute fentanyl traffickers, POLITICO's Carmen Paun reports. The details: The HALT Fentanyl Act adds fentanyl derivatives to Schedule 1, which also covers drugs such as heroin and LSD that have 'no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse,' according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The substances have been on Schedule 1 since 2018 but only on a provisional basis. 'It's a big deal, as they will tell you, meaning anyone caught trafficking these illicit poisons will be punished with a mandatory, 10-year minimum sentence in prison,' Trump said at a White House bill-signing ceremony attended by people who lost loved ones to fentanyl poisoning or overdoses, as well as lawmakers and some Republican governors. Why it matters: The law delivers on one of Trump's campaign promises to crack down on fentanyl traffickers and Mexican cartels that produce the drug, which drove a record rise in fatal drug overdoses in the U.S. during the pandemic. The CDC estimates that nearly 113,000 people died of an overdose, most of them driven by fentanyl, between August 2022 and August 2023. The number of deaths has decreased since, with the CDC estimating that more than 78,000 people died of a fatal overdose between February 2024 and February 2025. In Congress BANNING FDA-APPROVED DRUGS? A group of House Democrats plans to introduce legislation clarifying that states can't ban the prescription or use of drugs and vaccines that the FDA has already approved, POLITICO's Lauren Gardner reports. The bill, by Rep. Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), would confirm that the FDA approvals of medicines preempt any attempts by states to forbid or restrict their sale or use. It would also ensure that preemption applies despite a 1993 law intended to protect religious freedom. Key context: The preemption argument has come into the spotlight as states have clashed with the federal government and drugmakers over abortion pills. The legislation comes after the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday rejected a bid by the manufacturer of generic mifepristone, one of two drugs used in medication abortion, to overturn West Virginia's ban on the procedure by arguing the FDA's approval of the drug preempts state prohibitions on its use. The company, GenBioPro, first leveled the argument in a separate case challenging Mississippi's telehealth abortion ban, though it abandoned the case in 2022. Why it matters: The bill's clear tie to state restrictions on medication abortion all but ensures it won't advance in the Republican-controlled Congress. But the issue of whether a drug's approval by a federal agency preempts state-level efforts to ban or limit it will likely persist in future legal challenges concerning mifepristone — and potentially other medicines.. What's next: Ross said she expects a companion bill to be introduced in the Senate but declined to say who would sponsor it. OZ'S BIPARTISAN GAGGLE — CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz is scheduled to meet with Democrats and Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee next Wednesday, as lawmakers look to tackle year-end health care legislation, building on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, POLITICO's Benjamin Guggenheim reports. The details: According to a notice of the meeting viewed by POLITICO, Ways and Means Committee members are invited 'to discuss the priorities' of CMS, including issues 'involving health care matters' that fall within the panel's jurisdiction. The conversation could turn to what's next for Ways and Means and its counterpart in the Senate, the Finance Committee, where Republicans are actively discussing overhauling the operations of pharmaceutical benefit managers, the intermediaries that negotiate drug prices among pharmacies, manufacturers and health plans. WHAT WE'RE READING The Associated Press' Patrick Whittle and Geoff Mulvihill report on how a major medical provider in Maine is getting hit by an item in Republicans' sweeping policy and tax bill intended to block Medicaid dollars from flowing to Planned Parenthood. The Wall Street Journal's Liz Essley Whyte reports on the personality clashes behind the departure of two top aides to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. STAT's Bob Herman and Tara Bannow report that CMS is proposing 'efficiency' pay cuts that would hit highly paid specialists the hardest.
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Yahoo
When is full moon in July 2025? Here's when to see 'buck moon' in Texas
July's full moon is known as the buck moon and will peak on Thursday, July 10. The full moon is a phase when it appears to be fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. The full moon in July coincides with the peak of nature's growth. Crops are either ripening or being harvested. Gardeners in El Paso are likely harvesting tomatoes, squash, tomatillos, and leeks, among other vegetables. After the Buck Moon, there are five more full moons before the end of the year. Here is what to know about the July 2025 full moon. July 2025 full moon: Tuesday, July 10. Peak Illumination: 2:37 p.m. MT, 3:37 p.m. CT White Sands National Park will celebrate July's Full Moon Night at 8 p.m. Thursday, July 10, in the park's outdoor amphitheater. The event will include a performance by The Out Cats, a blues duo from Las Cruces. The park will have extended hours, from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., for the event. Seating is not provided at the amphitheater. People can set up on the surrounding dunes and bring camp chairs, blankets, and coolers with food and drinks. The program is free, but park entrance fees will apply. A standard pass is $25 for a private vehicle. To get to the amphitheater, drive approximately six miles beyond the fee station to an intersection just after the Backcountry Camping Trail parking lot. Take a right at the intersection and then turn left again. Drive approximately one mile further, and the amphitheater will be on the right side. The parking lot will open at 7 p.m. A full moon is the phase when the moon appears to be fully illuminated from Earth's perspective. This occurs when the sun, Earth, and moon are all in alignment, forming a straight line. The moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of the Earth, according to the Farmer's Almanac. From this position, the sun's light shines directly onto the portion of the moon that is visible to us and creates a full, bright circle of light. Male deer antlers begin to grow in late spring. Antlers grow as fast as ¼ inch per day or one-and-a-half inches per week during this period, making them the fastest-growing bones in the world, according to the Farmers Almanac. Antlers grow from the pedicle in the buck's skull. The lengthening daylight in spring triggers hormones that initiate growth each spring. Buck antlers can easily be spotted in full velvet come July. Unlike horns, antlers are bones made mostly of calcium and phosphorus that the deer shed after mating season. Buck antlers lose their velvety coating, usually within a 24-hour period, closer to mating season in fall. American Indians in Alaska, including the Haida and Tlingit, dubbed the July full moon the 'Salmon Moon' for its timing with salmon runs. The Wishrams in the Pacific Northwest translate to 'Salmon Go Up Rivers In A Group.' (Salmon migrate up rivers to spawn from spring through fall.) The sockeye salmon run typically begins in July and can last through October. Aug. 9: Sturgeon moon. Sept. 7: Corn moon. Oct. 6: Harvest moon. Nov. 5: Beaver moon. Dec. 4: Cold moon. More: Mrs. Doubtfire, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The Wiz, part of 2025-26 Broadway in El Paso María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@ @ on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: When is full moon in July 2025? Here's when to see 'buck moon'
25-06-2025
- Health
US cancer deaths decrease, but global cases expected to soar, new report warns
A sweeping new report from the American Cancer Society suggests cancer will likely be the leading cause of early deaths worldwide by 2050, with cases projected to rise by 74%. "This is because of population aging and growth," said Ahmedin Jemal, senior vice president of the Surveillance & Health Equity Science Department of the American Cancer Society and the chief editor of the report. In 2022, there were about 19 million new cancer cases worldwide. The United States made up 13% of those cases -- more than the combined share from Africa (6%), Latin America and the Caribbean (7%), and Oceania (less than 2%). Certain cancers in the U.S. are rising more than others. According to the report, lung cancer was the leading cause of cancer in the world, despite declining smoking rates. In the U.S., the most commonly diagnosed cancer for women was breast, while for men, it was prostate. Jemal pointed out that skin cancer is still the most common cancer in the U.S. overall. However, the report only included cases of melanoma, omitting other types that are not often accounted for in cancer registries. The number of young people diagnosed with colorectal cancer in the U.S. is on the rise and quickly expanding, the report also noted. "We are seeing an increase in colon cancer in those born after 1950 and a decrease in the median age of diagnosis," said Jemal. More people are being diagnosed at younger ages and fewer people are being diagnosed at older ages due to early detection from colonoscopy screenings, he explained. "We don't know why, but there are suspected risk factors," he said. "One is obesity prevalence. Others are ultra processed foods and changes in the gut microbiome." Cancer is currently the leading cause of early deaths in the U.S., surpassing heart disease. However, not all groups are impacted equally. The report highlighted significant racial and geographic disparities. Black Americans have the highest cancer death rate of any racial/ethnic group and are more likely to be diagnosed with aggressive forms of the disease. American Indians/Alaska Natives also experience worse outcomes -- this is still true when diagnosis stage and type of tumor are accounted for. The report suggested that this is driven by barriers like discrimination, cost, inadequate insurance, and less access to early detection and treatment options. People living in rural areas and southern states were also more likely to die from cancer, likely due to persistent poverty and obesity, as well as less access to screening and cancer specialists. Despite bleak statistics and predictions, the report contained some good news. Over the past 30 years, cancer deaths have decreased by 34% in the United States. Although the United States accounts for 1 in 6 cancer cases worldwide, it makes up just 7% of global cancer deaths, highlighting the country's strong detection and treatment efforts. Deaths from lung cancer and HPV-related cancers are also decreasing, the report noted, thanks to medical advances like the HPV vaccine and CT screening. Almost half of U.S. cancer deaths are due to modifiable risk factors like obesity, smoking and infection, the report estimated. Although smoking rates have decreased overall, there is still more work to be done. Tobacco is still potentially linked to about a third of cancer deaths. Jemal pointed to strong health promotion efforts, tobacco control and vaccination as making a big difference. "There is a huge opportunity to substantiality reduce the burden of cancer globally by focusing on primary prevention, which is underappreciated and underutilized," he said.
