Thank you, Andy, for welcoming me to Alaska and to the Alaska Native Medical Center.
Thank you, Senator Murkowski and Representative Young for joining us here today, and thank you to Senator Sullivan, who had to depart just a few minutes ago.
I’d like to thank these members of Congress for their close cooperation with HHS on the COVID-19 response and on improving the health and well-being of Alaska Natives.
You are tireless advocates for Alaska back in Washington, and the people of your state should know that they are well represented.
As some of you know, this visit is special to me because this is the first chance I’ve had to visit Alaska as HHS Secretary, after many visits to Alaska Native communities around the state during my time at HHS in the 2000s.
The Alaska Native communities are near and dear to my heart. Unfortunately, this trip will not involve our traditional midnight swim in the Bering Sea off of Nome or in the Arctic Ocean off of Kotzebue.
I’m so pleased to see how much progress has been made to deliver even better access to services since I last visited Anchorage.
But I’m not surprised by that progress. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and other Alaska Native organizations have long set the standard for delivering healthcare and human services in the most remote parts of America—really, some of the most remote inhabited places in the world.
At the same time, the Trump Administration has been a strong supporter of the Indian Health Service and delivering what remote tribal communities need.
President Trump signed into law a $243 million increase in IHS funding from 2019 to 2020. We then proposed another $185 million funding increase for 2021.
This past year, Congress followed through on the President’s proposals to fully fund staffing for new and replacement IHS facilities while also covering contract support costs so tribes can run their own facilities, as has often been done here in Alaska. Congress also delivered funding in response to our proposed investments for a completely new electronic health records system for IHS.
We’ve established the first-ever IHS Office of Quality, which has already delivered results on achieving facilities accreditation, and this year, we were grateful to have the Senate confirm Admiral Weahkee as IHS director.
Then, this July, the Trump Administration recognized the particular success of Alaska Native communities by officially announcing the expansion of Alaska’s Community Health Aide Program, part of President Trump’s broader efforts to improve rural healthcare, including tribal healthcare, across America.
I’ve gotten to see CHAP and the Community Dental Aide program in operation in places like Gambell and Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island and in Shishmaref.
More than 50,000 Alaskans benefit from this program each year, and we’re now going to ensure tribal communities across America can benefit from this innovative form of healthcare delivery.
The creativity of Alaska Native communities has helped you adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Trump Administration has worked to support Alaska Native communities during this crisis.
We’ve sent 31 rapid point-of-care test machines to Alaska and delivered $500 million in funding to the Indian healthcare system, an allocation that I worked personally to increase in cooperation with the White House, Admiral Weahkee, and Deputy Secretary Hargan.
We’ve also recognized the telehealth work that the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium has done through an $800,000 CARES Act grant to support your telehealth resource center.
Later today, I’m looking forward to visiting the Anchorage Native Primary Care Center, and meeting with leadership of the Southcentral Foundation, developer of the Nuka System of patient-centered care.
On the human services front, earlier today, I was also pleased to meet with my friend Gloria O’Neill to see how the Cook Inlet Tribal Community has continued to deliver Head Start services in person, with the necessary safety precautions, and provided other services virtually.
The state of Alaska and Alaska Native communities have much to be proud of in how you’ve responded to COVID-19 and the challenging everyday circumstances we see here in Alaska.
Thank you to everyone for such a warm welcome, and thank you to everyone playing a role in the COVID-19 response and the continued delivery of vital services in Anchorage and across Alaska.
