Examining the 110th Congress's actions surrounding HIV/AIDS
In a new policy update, the National Association of People With AIDS (NAPWA) and the Treatment Access Expansion Project (TAEP) examine the 110th Congress’s actions surrounding HIV/AIDS, specifically regarding access to care and treatment, funding, prevention, education and research.
The policy report, printed in the January/February 2008 issue of POZ, compares the AIDS community’s expectations of the first Democrat-controlled Congress in 12 years with the actual results of the past year. “Although AIDS advocates have seen more Congressional goodwill than in recent years, the high hopes for the 110th Congress remain largely unfulfilled,” the organizations write. “To have a truly successful HIV/AIDS policy agenda depends on electing a supportive president, or securing a veto-proof majority in Congress.”
The report calls attention to new bills that seek to address the need for affordable health care for HIV-positive people; the importance of the Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA), which would allow Medicaid programs to cover HIV-positive people who do not have AIDS; a need for health services for HIV-positive people battling mental illness or addiction; and hopes that the 2008 U.S. presidential election will bring about further, more concrete policy changes.
To read the complete report, and to learn how to join the dialogue on policy issues, click here.
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edith, new york, 2008-01-12 13:47:16
why aren't they discussing why pregnancy can cause an hiv test to show up as positive? or why all hiv tests have disclaimers on them or why the pure isolation of hiv has never been published in a peer reviewed journal? does anyone care about these facts?
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I think that it's OK to be angry. I am sometimes—it's natural—we are HIV positive. but I always try to not let myself stay there too long. Let yourself feel you are human. You should not beat yourself up about being angry."