For Immediate Release

Media Contact:
Justin Burke -
213.201.1525

BUSH BUDGET GIVES SHORT SHRIFT TO DOMESTIC AIDS

Global AIDS Funding Gets Boost while Medicare and Social Services Threatened

Los Angeles, Calif., February 8, 2007 – AIDS Project Los Angeles today acknowledged funding increases for some international HIV/AIDS programs in President Bush’s proposed 2008 budget, while calling on Congress to resist the president’s proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare over the next five years. 

“Domestic health care programs get slammed in this budget,” said APLA Executive Director Craig E. Thompson. “HIV/AIDS programs are once again under-funded while cuts to entitlement programs are precisely the wrong approach to the health care crisis in America.”

The Bush budget calls for some $76 billion in cuts to Medicare  – mostly to providers such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospice and home health providers – and $26 billion in cuts to Medicaid, largely through payments to the states.

The California Hospital Association said the cuts could cost California $1.5 billion in federal Medicaid dollars and potentially threaten Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s sweeping health care reform proposals.

Medicaid and Medicare are the largest sources of federal funding for care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. 

“If the president wanted to cut Medicare he should have targeted the new prescription drug program where there’s ample fat,” Thompson said. “Cutting provider rates and state Medicaid payments will just make it harder for low-income people to access medical care.

“There are more people than ever living with HIV/AIDS, more senior citizens, and more low-income individuals relying on these programs,” Thompson said. “We have the money for these programs, just not the political will.”

The president’s proposed budget includes $97 million in increases to Title II of the Ryan White CARE Act, which provides drug therapies for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. The budget also calls for $5.4 billion for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), including an additional $1.2 billion for global HIV/AIDS programs, and $300 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

“President Bush has really stepped up to the plate when it comes to international AIDS,” Thompson said. “We need to see the same kind of commitment to fighting the epidemic here at home. The president has talked a lot about fighting AIDS, particularly in communities of color, but his actions have not matched his words.”

There are now more people than ever – about 1.2 million – living with HIV/AIDS in the United States. By some estimates, CARE Act funding has declined in some programs by 25 percent in real dollars since 2000. 

The president’s budget also proposes cuts to low-income energy assistance programs, food stamps, assistance with child care, housing for seniors, and other social services programs. At the same time, the budget would make permanent tax cuts for the wealthy amounting to $739 billion to millionaires alone, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

“The budget is probably dead on arrival in Congress,” Thompson said. “The new leadership in the House and Senate needs to rethink health care spending in America so we can actually meet and treat the health care needs of all Americans.”

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