ALBUQUERQUE, NM – Ahead of Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury’s re-election, she introduced a new bill last week. The new bill aims to assist and expand health care for Indigenous communities.

The Indian Health Service will partner with the University of New Mexico to help provide some of these services.

“When our tribal nations entered into agreements with the U.S. government, providing health care was actually an essential part of those agreements,” Stansbury said.

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

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

Stansbury wants to use medical students from UNM.

“So the Indian Health Service Provider Expansion Act builds on an existing residency program administered by the University of New Mexico Family Medicine Residency, located in Shiprock, and it is one of the best and best programs in the country. In fact, this is the program that currently serves our Indian healthcare system,” Stansbury said.

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

“There are patients who hitchhike to us. We have patients who, you know, have to coordinate all of their family care to be able to come to an appointment. So we do our best to do a full visit every time someone comes to visit us,” said Marcus Couldridge, a student at UNM.

The program could also help expand its reach to reach clinical communities desperate to see the government deliver on its health care promise.