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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Robinson

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/28/07

HB

SHORT TITLE Urban Indian Health Program Federal Funding

SB SM 51

ANALYST Guambaña

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

Senate Memorial 51 requests the New Mexico Congressional Delegation to urge the United

States Congress to maintain funding for Urban Indian Health Programs in the 2008 federal

budget in order to avert a health crisis.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

Senate Memorial 51 states that:

•

The President of the United States, in his 2008 budget, has proposed to terminate all

funding for Urban Indian Health Programs under "major savings and reforms";

•

This unilateral decision to terminate all funding for Urban Indian Health Programs has

been made without consultation with American Indian communities, the states, Urban

Indian Health Centers or the patients served by Urban Indian Health Programs;

•

No research has been done that would support the efficacy of this decision to terminate

these programs;

•

In the Albuquerque metropolitan area alone, 35,000 of the 50,000 American Indians

living there are uninsured;

•

American Indians suffer significantly higher rates of serious health conditions, such as

diabetes and tuberculosis, and higher suicide rates than the general population, and in the

Senate Memorial 51 – Page

2

greater Albuquerque urban area nearly one-half of American Indians live below the

poverty level and more than one-half reside in single-parent homes;

•

Urban American Indians are ineligible to receive health care on reservations and rely on

Urban Indian Health Programs for their health and dental needs;

•

All other urban health care providers, such as those in Bernalillo county, are already

overloaded with uninsured patients who have no access to alternative health care;

•

The president's decision to terminate funding for Urban Indian Health Programs will

place an inequitable burden on the taxpayers of New Mexico and on the remaining health

care providers, and

•

The country's obligation to fund health services for American Indian beneficiaries is

founded in treaty, statute and the United States constitution.

•

This memorial requests that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the governor, the

Secretary of Health, the Navajo Nation, the all Indian Pueblo Council, the members of

New Mexico's Congressional Delegation, the United States Secretary of Health and

Human Services and the Director of the Indian Health Service.

AG/mt