Health-y-Insurance

Recent clinical technology have made HIV/AIDS a highly treatable disease. Well-suited medical care can sustain the lives of HIV-infected persons and prevent unnecessary and possibly expensive complications. However, not all HIV-infected individuals have adequate access to medical care.  Given the economic woes across the US, budget cuts is not surprising. However, this fact doesn’t lessen the pain of the $85 million budget cuts aimed at AIDS programs across California. Hardest hit in the cuts are HIV education and prevention programs, testing and counseling services, home services and early intervention services. The Governor has accepted the difficult decision to cut AIDS programs. The governor’s budget proposal would cut million from the AIDS drug assistance program and eliminate million that funds counseling, testing, prevention and education, epidemiology and housing programs.   The proposed cuts are unprecedented and will definitely eliminate the Office of AIDS in California. In addition to eliminating state funding, agencies will also not be able to receive federal funding that requires state matching.

The Governor’s budget game plan has a direct and significant negative effect on the access to healthcare for millions of Californians. The governor’s budget proposal would mean 2 million Californians overall would directly lose health coverage, and another 400,000 would lose coverage due to job and economic  impacts. Millions more would have reduced benefits and faced increased barrier in access to health care. A large and consistent body of research has shown that the uninsured people live sicker and die younger, leading to a less productive workforce.

The  intended reduction of  the state’s general fund contribution to AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and other AIDS services, including counseling, testing and home-based care, would also result to widespread HIV infections and deaths.Each year in California, an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 people become infected. About one in five do not know they are infected. California has one of the highest infection rates in the U.S. with more than 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, according to the California Department of Public Health Office of AIDS.   The state´s ability to identify people living with AIDS is now harshly paralyzed—creating an enormous obstacle to the prevention of new infections and linking those who need it to treatment. Not only will the Governor´s cold-blooded funding cuts shatter those living with HIV/AIDS who rely on the services the state provides to stay alive and healthy, but today’s cuts also pose a serious threat to our shared responsibility to combat the spread of HIV in California.