Washington, D.C. – The following is a statement from AIDS United on the Department of Justice’s filing with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that the lower court’s ruling should be affirmed in the Texas v. United States health care lawsuit:

On Monday, March 25, the long campaign of the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice to chip away at the Affordable Care Act became an all-out assault on its very existence, as it officially asked the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to throw out the law entirely.  This poorly thought-out position undermines efforts to expand health care generally and specifically the White House’s new initiative to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030. AIDS United denounces the change in legal theory by the Justice Department and calls on it to immediately reverse its actions.

If the Administration succeeds in its latest assault, Medicaid expansion would end, state marketplaces for health insurance would close, and both treatment and care opportunities for people living with HIV would be severely restricted. Instead of ending the HIV epidemic, this action risks its renewal, resulting in new infections, and a worsening of HIV-related health disparities. 

Following the State of the Union address, AIDS United expressed cautious optimism and a willingness to work with the Administration as it seeks to enact and implement its plan for ending the HIV epidemic.  But initiatives like this one are bold by their very nature and require immense coordination and good will to succeed. What once may have been written off as an occasional breakdown in communication between the Department of Health and Human Services and the rest of the administration, has become a chronic case of the administration’s right hand not communicating with its left.  If this does not change, we worry that the opportunity to end this epidemic once and for all, will slip through our fingers. 

About AIDS United:

 
AIDS United’s mission is to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S. through strategic grant-making, capacity building, and policy. AIDS United works to ensure access to life-saving HIV care and prevention services and to advance sound HIV-related policy for U.S. populations and communities most impacted by the epidemic. To date, our strategic grant-making initiatives have directly funded more than $104 million to local communities and have leveraged more than $117 million in additional investments for programs that include, but are not limited to HIV prevention, access to care, capacity building, harm reduction and advocacy. www.aidsunited.org