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Washington's tribes want Medicaid to cover traditional healing

caption: Vicki Lowe, executive director of the American Indian Health Commission for Washington state and a member of the Sequim City Council is portrayed on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in Sequim.
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Vicki Lowe, executive director of the American Indian Health Commission for Washington state and a member of the Sequim City Council is portrayed on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in Sequim.
KUOW Photo/Megan Farmer

When Washington’s legislative session kicks off next week, lawmakers will take up the issue of traditional Native American medicine.

Washington state Medicaid doesn’t currently reimburse Native American healers for their services — but Washington’s American Indian Health Commission is asking the Legislature to change that.

“Our medicine has been withheld in the past,” said Vicki Lowe, executive director of the Commission, and descendant of the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. “Our medicine was considered religion for years.”

“We know that because of all the behavioral health issues and the issues with opioid and fentanyl, that having these traditional healers and being able to get reimbursed for their services will help heal our people in a better way than Western medicine does,” Lowe added.

For Medicaid to pay traditional healers, states have to get a waiver from the federal government. Four other states already have this waiver, and Native American health leaders are asking the Washington Legislature to require state officials here to seek the waiver.

Washington’s tribes are also asking the Legislature for increased public health funding.

“Tribal lands are public health deserts,” said Stephen Kutz, chair of Washington’s American Indian Health Commission and a member of the state Board of Health. “All of the work that we do in our state Board of Health, for example, has no applicability to tribal lands. And still, today, we're getting virtually no money on the federal side for public health.”

Each tribe currently gets $200,000 a year from the state for public health. That pays for about one employee.

Health officials will be requesting $45 million for tribes to spend on public health as part of the state budget.

The legislative session kicks off on Monday, and lawmakers will negotiate the budget in the coming weeks.

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