Bush Administration AIDS Policies Continue to Fall Short

In the president’s State of the Union address this year, he pledged again to fightthe growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. Mr. Bush asked Congress to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act “to encourage prevention and provide care and treatment” for those infected with the disease. He also stated that “we must focus our efforts on fellow citizens with the highest rates of new cases: African-American men and women.” But when his 2006 budget proposal was released two weeks later, a very different picture emerged. The Minority AIDS Initiative, a program targeting blacks and Hispanics for prevention and treatment, and the CARE Act, received no new funding. The budget cuts $14 million from the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS program, which provides housing subsidies for low-income people with HIV/AIDS. Experts have complained that the homeless and those in unstable home environments are often unable to obtain medical care and are the first to die from AIDS. The Centers for Disease Control Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention was cut by $4 million. The budget also cuts $45 billion over ten years from Medicaid. Yet Medicaid is the single largest provider of medical care to those with HIV/AIDS. Annually, this federal program provides $5.6 billion in medical services to those with the disease. [more]