By Mark Trahant
Special to News From Indian Country
There seems to be political consensus that our health care system won’t end up like those in Canada or England. OK, but what about the American version of a single-payer, government-run health care agency?
The Bureau of Indian Affairs sent doctors to inoculate American Indians near military forts with smallpox vaccine in 1834. Perhaps that effort was more self-interest than preventative medicine, but by 1955 the newly created U.S. Indian Health Service became a full-fledged national, government-run health care network.
Special to News From Indian Country
There seems to be political consensus that our health care system won’t end up like those in Canada or England. OK, but what about the American version of a single-payer, government-run health care agency?
The Bureau of Indian Affairs sent doctors to inoculate American Indians near military forts with smallpox vaccine in 1834. Perhaps that effort was more self-interest than preventative medicine, but by 1955 the newly created U.S. Indian Health Service became a full-fledged national, government-run health care network.
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