Trahant: tribes are 51st State in health care; South Dakota missed opportunity

That red state governors wield any power over American Indians trapped within their borders is a breach in federal law, especially when it comes to medical insurance and health care.

Mark Trahant believes as this blog does that tribes are already the 51st State.

A new White House report (pdf) details the economic impact of Medicaid expansion and is sharply critical of the 22 states that have not done so. The report is titled, “Missed Opportunities: The Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand Medicaid.” In Indian country, the big three non-expansion states are Alaska, South Dakota and Oklahoma. The Indian health system is a federal obligation — a Treaty right — that does not cost states. Yet states are setting the rules, so at the very least our advocate ought to be chronicling the impact. A missed opportunity. [excerpt, Mark Trahant, Indian Country Today]

South Dakota's governor is a liar.

"Thirty-four states, including South Dakota, have chosen to participate in the federal exchange," Dennis Daugaard said in an op/ed in the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

No, Denny: you chose to be the death panel, not South Dakota.

South Dakota:

Number of People Losing Tax Credits 51,000
Total Value of Tax Credits & Cost Sharing Reductions
Lost (Millions $) 147.1
Increase in the Number of People Uninsured 42,000

I swear.

Daugaard is defending his decision to appoint Republicans, a move resembling expecting hogs to plant gardens, to an education task force.

When Fidel Castro took the reins in Cuba he dissolved the previous constitution with all its treaties, wrote a new manual, and ruled by decree.

That's essentially what happened to tribes: treaties that served as constitutions for American indigenous were broken and are still being rewritten for political expediency. American Indians are subject to at least four overlapping jurisdictions making tribes the most regulated people in the US without representatives serving in Congress.