AIDS Advocates Praise Obama Administration for New Initiative Promoting Access to HIV Care
Washington, DC – As part of its pledge under the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released guidance and an application template today to make it easier for states to apply for Section 1115 Medicaid waivers to cover pre-disabled people living with HIV. Right now (and until 2014 when health care reform expands Medicaid to most people up to 133% of the federal poverty level), most people living with HIV have to wait until they are disabled by AIDS to be eligible for Medicaid. An 1115 waiver gives a state flexibility to immediately cover pre-disabled people living with HIV under its Medicaid program.
“This is a huge victory for the HIV/AIDS community,” said Robert Greenwald, Clinical Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and Director of the school’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation. “Early access to HIV care and treatment will save lives and is very cost-effective. And, as the recent finding from the National Institute of Health trial (HPTN 052) study demonstrated, early diagnosis with access to care and treatment not only improves individual health, it greatly reduces transmission risk.”
“AIDS in America” Organizations Deliver Letter to President
The following is a letter delivered to President Obama from 18 national HIV/AIDS organizations encouraging the inclusion of four key elements in the final development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy.
April 20, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama
The White House
Washington. D.C.
Dear Mr. President,
As leaders of national organizations that have come together under the “AIDS In America” umbrella, we thank you for your commitment to the development of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States and for the progress that has been made on its development. We understand that the federal interagency work group is expected soon to make its recommendations on the Strategy to the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). As the White House reviews the recommendations of the interagency work group and crafts a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for addressing the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic, we would like to offer four key elements which we believe must be reflected in a Strategy for it to be successful.
White House Taking Comments on NHAS through Monday, November 23rd
The Office of National AIDS Policy website now shows that comments will be taken on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy through Monday, November 23rd.
Please take this opportunity to weigh in on one of the most important domestic policy discussions to take place in recent years.
White House will facilitate community access to panel drafting National HIV/AIDS Strategy
The interagency federal panel that will draft the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the U.S. will meet with community representatives, said Greg Millett of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) at a recent meeting sponsored by the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy.
The announcement is welcome news, as Jeff Crowley, ONAP director, has made clear that the interagency panel writing the nation’s first comprehensive HIV/AIDS plan would be comprised solely of officials from relevant federal agencies and departments. The Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy, which has advocated for a National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) since 2007, wrote Mr. Crowley earlier this year to urge the White House to create meaningful roles for community representatives to shape the plan. A coalition of women’s HIV/AIDS advocates also urged Crowley to make direct community involvement in shaping the plan a priority. While short of the request to include community members among the plan's drafters, news that the panel will meeting with community representatives is a new and positive development.
Click below to read more.
National AIDS Strategy call to action issued at National Equality March
Ronald Johnson, Deputy Executive Director of AIDS Action Council, delivered a rousing speech at the HIV/AIDS Rally & Vigil at the National Equality March (held over the weekend of October 10-11, 2009). The march marked the first time in nearly ten years that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender Americans and their allies converged on our nation's capital from around the country to advocate for their rights.
Amidst calls for pro-equality measures long left sitting on Congress's shelves, Johnson's speech highlighted a recent success of HIV/AIDS activists, including many LGBT activists: President Obama's commitment to creating a National AIDS Strategy through the Office of National AIDS Policy.
The call to action now, Johnson said, is ensuring that the process for creating the strategy meets to goals of the framework hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals contributed to creating through the Coalition for a National AIDS Strategy.
Click below to read his speech in full.