After weeks of debate, it's still unclear how government-run health care would work, but many parts of South Dakota already receive health care through the government.  Indian Health Services controls medical operations on South Dakota's reservations, but a board member of an independent clinic on the Pine Ridge Reservations says no plan will work without a boost in funding.

The waiting room is empty at the Porcupine Community Clinic, but it's not because the whole town is healthy. A lack of funding keeps the doors closed for all but two days a week.

"It isn't adequate the way it's set up now but you can only do so much when you don't have enough dollars to provide health care," Clinic Board Member Paul Iron Cloud said.

Iron Cloud says while it's not an Indian Health Service office, the clinic still runs on government funds. He says the system is failing on all of South Dakota's reservations and putting the same type of plan in place throughout the country would produce the same result.

"There has to be more funding.  I think there has to be reorganization to really look at the benefits of government health care if they want to do that," Iron Cloud said.

Right now, patients who come to the Porcupine Clinic when it's open are seen by nurses; that's because a lack of funding prevents them from hiring a doctor to come in during those two days a week.

"We need some good doctors because every time there's a serious ailment or accident, we have to fly those people to Rapid or Sioux Falls," Iron Cloud said.

And he worries if the same type of government-run health care system spreads outside of the reservation, those resources could deteriorate too.