Native health advocates are raising alarms over a proposed federal budget that reduces funding to the Indian Health Service (IHS). In a letter dated April 17 sent to the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) criticized the planned cuts as dangerous and urged urgent rectification.
What Happened: The Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) proposed adjustments include almost a 30% reduction to the IHS base budget from FY 2025 estimates, amounting to approximately $900 million in cuts for FY 2026. The plan also removes advance appropriations, stops funding for water and sanitation and healthcare facility construction, restricts self-governance for new Tribes, and eradicates services across the board.
"We implore you to immediately appeal the proposed reductions… mirroring the swift and decisive action taken by the Secretary of the Interior," the NIHB urged in the letter.
See Also: RFK Jr. To Cut 10,000 Jobs, Shut Regional Agencies In Major Health Department Overhaul: Report
Why It Matters: The IHS operates with a 30% vacancy rate at the moment, the letter states. It adds: "if each facility across the IHS lost just one physician-level provider, 43% of those facilities would have to close their doors entirely."
The letter calls the proposed cuts as a direct threat to life. "This loss of funding will lead to deaths in our communities from preventable medical incidents, such as precipitous births, cardiac events, untreated diabetes complications, and preventable suicides," it warns.
The NIHB clarifies that these are not hypotheticals—they are documented outcomes from past underfunding. "Before IHS had advance appropriations… members of our families died from these exact types of preventable emergencies," the letter said.
Secretary Kennedy has previously said Indian health is a top priority. With more than 574 federally recognized Tribal Nations relying on IHS, the NIHB is calling on him to that stay true to that promise by declining the OMB's proposed reductions.
"The funding to the IHS is not an arbitrary budget number," the NIHB wrote. "These figures represent funding to keep doctors and nurses in our facilities nationwide."
Kennedy Jr.’s mass layoffs have concerned experts, disrupting crucial health data collection and research, including studies on cancer in firefighters and the transmission of HIV and syphilis from mothers to babies. Attempts to monitor and contain disease outbreaks—like the country’s worst measles outbreak in decades—have also been impacted.
Earlier this month, Kennedy stirred controversy in an interview with CBS News, where he asked whether taxpayers should foot the bill for those who smoke regularly or often eat unhealthy foods, like doughnuts.
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