Scotts Bluff, Neb. ? Underfunded health programs are making it difficult for American Indian women to get the health care they need, a speaker at a recent Gering health conference said.

Linda Burhansstipanov, executive director and president for the Native American Cancer Research Corporation in Pine, Colo., recently spoke at the Second Annual Western Nebraska Women’s Health Conference..

Underfunded public health programs aren’t the only factor hurting American Indian women diagnosed with cancer, she said. They also have a hard time obtaining care because they often are uninsured or underinsured, Burhansstipanov said.

As a result, she said, Indian women have the lowest cancer survival rate in the country.

When tribal communities receive contract health service funding at the beginning of the year, the potential is there to get some treatment. But many of those communities run out of funding by May or June, she said.

The range of public funding for treatment in tribal communities swings from 28 percent to 60 percent, she said.

Having to travel to reach medical help also places a burden on patients and sometimes delays treatment, she said.

“Women in rural communities often go to treatment completely alone,” Burhansstipanov said. “They have to rely on someone to take care of their family, and that someone usually has their own family to take care of.”