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“[A] great many people have little access to health care […] and spend their lives fighting unnecessary morbidity” (Sen, 1999:15). To Nobel-laureate Amartya Sen, this is a fundamental form of ‘unfreedom.’ To many Aboriginal1 people, it is a characteristic of contemporary existence within the boundaries of Canada. Because the health status of Native people has continued to register as inequitably poor, despite the existence of socialized medicine and a proliferation of government health programs, claims that a simple increase in health services or a reorganization of the health care budget will have a positive impact are no longer sensible. And with Indigenous peoples bearing a disproportionate amount of excess and premature morbidity and mortality, such claims are no longer ethical.
- Indigenous/Aboriginal health,
- public health policy,
- medical pluralism
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/samgrey/14/