Leonard Bighorn said his mother tried for two years to get help for severe stomach pain through the limited health services available near her home on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. After his mom finally saw a specialist in Glasgow, about an hour away, she was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Bighorn said. Now, 16 years after his mother’s death, Bighorn has access to regular screenings for cancer and other specialty care that she didn’t have, through a health insurance program the Fort Peck Tribes created in 2016. The program, which covers most of the costs for the roughly 1,000 tribal citizens enrolled, is among a growing number of tribally sponsored health insurance programs. Such programs vary by tribe, but they essentially screen and enroll people living within tribal boundaries in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans. They allow participating Native Americans flexibility to go to outside doctors and clinics when care through the Indian Health Service is unavailable. “I’d be in a bind otherwise,” said Bighorn, a 65-year-old tribal game warden and member of the Dakota community. But the Fort Peck Tribes now limit who has access to that coverage. Nearly 400 miles to the west, the Blackfeet Nation recently stopped enrolling people in a similar program, warning that funding will run out before the end of the year. Other tribal organizations that offer Native Americans similar coverage are struggling with rising costs, too. The financial crunch began when congressional lawmakers allowed enhanced subsidies under the Affordable…
