ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Ahead of Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury’s reelection, she proposed a new bill last week. The new bill is set to help and expand health care services for Indigenous communities.

Indian Health Service will be partnering with the University of New Mexico to help provide some of those services.

“As our tribal nations entered into agreements with the U.S. government, the provision of healthcare was actually part and parcel of those agreements,” said Stansbury. 

Despite that decades-old promise, New Mexico’s tribal communities continue to struggle to get access to adequate and efficient health care.

“There are many reasons for this. It includes geographic barriers, historical trauma, funding shortages, a lack of providers, and a lack of basic infrastructure for healthcare in our tribal communities,” Stansbury said. “It results in higher rates of all different kinds of chronic diseases, financial burdens, and of course, a reduced quality of life.”

Stansbury wants to leverage UNM medical students.

“So the Indian Health Service Provider Expansion Act builds off of an existing residency program that is operated by the University of New Mexico’s Family Medicine Residency that’s based out of Shiprock, and it’s one of the premier and best programs in the country. In fact, it’s the program currently that serves our Indian Health Service,” said Stansbury.

The partnership gives people access to healthcare and UNM med students get hands-on experience.

“We have patients that hitchhike to us. We have patients that have to get, you know, coordinate all their family care just to be able to come to an appointment. So we try our best to kind of do a full like visit every time someone comes to see us,” said Marcus Couldridge, a UNM grad student. 

The program could also help expand outreach that brings clinical into communities that are desperate to see the government deliver on its promise of healthcare.