For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke - 213.201.1525
AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES URGES CALIFORNIA DELEGATION TO
FOCUS ON FUNDING
Only Real Solution to Stalled CARE Act Reauthorization is More Money
Los Angeles, Calif., September 22, 2006 – AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) today urged California’s Congressional delegation to demand increased appropriations as the only solution for the beleaguered reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act.
On Wednesday, the House of Representative’s Energy and Commerce Committee adopted its version of the reauthorization bill, now called the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, in a letter today, asked leadership to bring the bill to the Senate floor so amendments can be offered to the pending legislation.
“The only thing that will fix this bill and break the political impasse is more money,” said Craig E. Thompson, APLA’s executive director. “Political will is everything in the fight against AIDS, and the lack of sufficient funding for the CARE Act is the one place where legislators must now focus. Otherwise, the result will be predictable.”
Reauthorization has stalled over disparities in funding between states with older epidemics, such as California and New York, and those with newer epidemics, often Southern states. Congressional Republicans have vowed to shift funding to newer epidemics. However, CARE Act funding has been cut by some 25 percent in real dollars over the past five years, forcing legislators to cut funding for some jurisdictions to increase others.
“It is unconscionable that 25 years into this epidemic, Congress wants to bleed some states and cities in favor of others while the AIDS epidemic rages nationwide,” Thompson said.
During the House markup, New York legislators proposed extending hold harmless provisions in the CARE Act for the entire five years of the reauthorization to resolve funding disputes.
These provisions would limit losses to heavily impacted Title I jurisdictions cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Chicago. Nine California jurisdictions receive Title I CARE Act funding, as do 42 other cities nationwide. The proposed amendment failed, but New York, New Jersey and California committee members opposed the bill.
“Extending hold harmless only means that Title I cities will have a smaller pot of supplemental funding to draw from,” Thompson said of the current bill’s funding mechanism. “Committee staff say cities can no longer count on these supplemental funds. Try telling that to the people living with HIV/AIDS whose lives depend on the care, treatment and services they receive through Title I funding.”
Los Angeles County received $34 million in CARE Act funding in 2006 -- $18 million in Title I formula, $14 million in Title I supplemental, and $2 million in Minority AIDS Initiative funding. The funds were cut five percent from the previous year.
“The oversight committees have failed to produce reliable data that tells us how much we stand to lose in the reauthorized bill,” Thompson said. “They are asking us to go blindly into the future, planning care, treatment and services for a growing epidemic without a budget.”
The CARE Act also funds states directly through Title II, including the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). ADAP provides life-saving drugs nationwide to low-income underinsured or uninsured people living with HIV/AIDS. In California, some 31,500 people rely on ADAP each year.
Title II base funding would receive the only significant increase -- $70 million -- in the planned reauthorization. States could use some of that funding for ADAP drugs. However, the Title II ADAP earmark receives no new money despite wait lists and other restrictions that some states have imposed on the program because of insufficient funding. HIV/AIDS advocates say $197 million is needed to fully fund ADAP.
California received over $100 million in federal ADAP funding in 2006, and augmented the program with some $88 million in drug rebates and $107.7 million in state general funds, nearly a $30 million increase over the previous year.
By some estimates, including those of its two senators, California could lose up to $50 million in the current reauthorization.
“Congress will end up rewarding states that have failed to contribute to their CARE Act programs and punishing states such as California that have,” Thompson said. “You cannot expect the CARE Act to compensate for systemic disparities in health care funding in states that simply refuse to provide for their people.”
Originally passed in 1990, the $2.1 billion CARE Act is the largest dedicated stream of federal funding for HIV/AIDS care, treatment and services. It must be reauthorized every five years. The current reauthorization expired a year ago.
AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), one of the largest non-profit AIDS service organizations in the United States, provides bilingual direct services, prevention education and leadership on HIV/AIDS-related policy and legislation. Founded by four friends in 1982, APLA is a community-based, volunteer-supported organization with local, national and global reach. For more information, visit www.apla.org.
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