For Immediate Release
Media Contact:
Justin Burke -
213.201.1525
AIDS PROJECT LOS ANGELES WELCOMES LONG-DELAYED PASSAGE OF
RYAN WHITE CARE ACT
Funding Fails to Meet Growing Demand
December 9, 2006, Los Angeles, Calif. – AIDS Project Los Angeles today welcomed the long-awaited reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act, but warned that ongoing under-funding of CARE Act programs will continue to undermine the U.S. response to the AIDS epidemic.
The CARE Act – now called the Ryan White Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 – passed both the Senate and House prior to adjournment on Friday. The president must now sign the new bill.
“Reauthorization brings an end to two years of uncertainty about the future of the Ryan White CARE Act and for that we are grateful,” said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. “Unfortunately, Congress failed to authorize enough money in this compromise bill to meet the growing demand for CARE Act services.
“The new Congress needs to find more money for these programs when it convenes in January,” Thompson added. “CARE Act budgets may be a zero sum game, but the AIDS epidemic is not.”
Reauthorization stalled two years ago over alleged disparities in nationwide CARE Act funding. Republicans argued that money should be shifted from states with older, more urban epidemics, such as California, New York and New Jersey, to states, often in the South, with growing rural epidemics.
“We would welcome an honest debate about nationwide disparities in CARE Act funding,” Thompson said. “Meanwhile, the epidemic continues to grow here in Los Angeles and in other parts of the country. What’s lacking is the political will to fund the prevention, care and treatment programs the U. S. epidemic demands.”
Congress has flat-funded most CARE Act programs for several years. Funding for some programs is now below 2003 levels, in part because of annual rescissions to all non-defense domestic spending. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says CARE Act funding has declined by 35 percent in real dollars since 2001.
Los Angeles County received $34.9 million in CARE Act funding in 2006, a 5.2 percent cut from the previous year. There are now more people living with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles County -- an estimated 59,000 – than ever before.
“States and cities, as well as AIDS service and health care providers, cannot meet demand on budgets that were already tight five years ago,” Thompson said
The $2.1 billion CARE Act is the largest dedicated source of federal funding for HIV/AIDS, and care, treatment and support services for uninsured or underinsured low-income people living with HIV/AIDS.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that some 1.1 million Americans now live with HIV/AIDS. New infections have held steady at around 40,000 annually for several years, but infection rates have risen among some populations, including gay men and in communities of color.
Senators from New York and New Jersey had put a “hold” on reauthorization, but relented this week on a compromise measure.
The new reauthorization will only last three years instead of five, eliminating large funding cuts that were anticipated during the last two years of the reauthorization.
Also, the compromise legislation permits states such as California to count code-based HIV data for funding allocations. The CDC has refused to certify this type of code-based data and California is in the process of switching to a names-based reporting system. The compromise bill also promises to “hold harmless” some grants to cities and states to keep funding cuts from destabilizing existing health care systems.
AIDS Project Los Angeles, 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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