Ryan White overhaul not yet finished

[William769]

As the nation commemorates the 25th anniversary of the outbreak of AIDS, Congress is wrapping up its year-long effort to revamp the Ryan White CARE Act, which AIDS advocates say has provided life-saving medical care to millions of low-income Americans with HIV since 1990.

The complexities of the multi-billion dollar Ryan White program have confounded patients benefiting from its provisions and have drawn derision from critics who say it would be unnecessary if the U.S. had a universal health care system.

But given the current realities, most gay and AIDS advocacy groups have praised both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate for working together to craft a proposal that seeks to change the program to conform to the changes in AIDS that have occurred since the bill was last revised 10 years ago.

http://www.washblade.com/2006/6-2/news/national/overhaul.cfm



Talk about a disaster waiting to happen.

[JackBeck]

1. The HIV/AIDS non-profit I work for got cut from Ryan White.

My department lost over $300,000. Instead of treatment education, it's now all about adherence. Get tested, come back positive, get you on drugs, come back if you feel sick. The medical model is now the preferred course of treatment. And we know doctors have ALL of the time in the world to explain to their patients what is actually going on...

:eyes:

[xchrom]

2. just about every program that has received ryan white funds have

suffered cuts -- or been cut altogether.

notably mental health services and some food banks that provide some other services.

[JackBeck]

4. They're going to do with the funding the same thing that they did with DHS

money: spread it out so places that have less HIV/AIDS cases, get more money per person, than places where there are high numbers of HIV/AIDS cases. It's sickening.

[xchrom]

5. i'm in the bay area -- and it's causing some hardships

in various places.

ryan white -- until now -- was a very dependable source of funding for people with hiv/aids.

[William769]

3. The agency where is Live has been cut so much

Not only have services been cut but people are losing their jobs.

Also in my area Hinv cases is going up ^ there is hardly any money left to even help with antiviral meds!