Budget Negotiations Underway;
Medicaid Guarantee in Danger;
Calls Needed to Democratic Governors

Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, and the President are engaged in serious negotiations about a seven-year balanced budget plan. A major and contentious issue is the structure of the Medicaid program.

The Republican leadership has proposed a block grant (Medigrant) program, with all authority over the program going to the states; including who is covered, what is covered, and for how long. A Democratic proposal offers per capita caps with guarantees of coverage for certain populations, especially pregnant women, children, low income elderly, and the disabled. President Clinton has stated publicly that he opposes a Medicaid block grant and will veto any budget bill that includes the dismantling of Medicaid as part of balancing the budget.

It is vitally important to people with HIV/AIDS, and others with serious health concerns to have guaranteed access to comprehensive and high quality health care services. This means keeping the entitlement status of Medicaid and ensuring a comprehensive package of benefits (including home and community-based long term care, prescription drug coverage, limits on co-payments, and quality controls.) All this is guaranteed now.

If Medicaid is changed to a block grant shorn of minimal requirements, there is no guarantee of ANYTHING to ANYONE. Those decisions will be left up to the fifty state legislatures. At this time all parties involved are relying on the input of the fifty state governors to determine the outcome of Medicaid, which has been a federal/state partnership for the past thirty years.

What Do We Need Now?

We need strong support from all governors to keep the entitlement status and comprehensive high quality coverage of Medicaid. The current political climate makes overt support of a Medicaid entitlement only possible from Democratic governors. Now is the time to make your governor state publicly his or her position on Medicaid and the entitlement status.

If you live in one of these states we need your help: Alaska; Arkansas; Colorado; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Hawaii; Indiana; Kentucky; Maine; Maryland; Missouri; Nebraska; Nevada; North Carolina; Vermont; Washington; and West Virginia.

Please call your governor immediately to make known his or her support for preserving the entitlement to comprehensive high quality coverage of Medicaid. Call the governor; visit your state capitol; write and fax letters; get your local media to press the governor for an answer.

If you live in states with Republican governors, please call, write and fax President Clinton and tell him how important the Medicaid entitlement is for you and the people you serve. We need federal guidance on Medicaid. We need guarantees of coverage.

Democratic Governors (and one Independent)

Alaska Tony Knowles p: (907) 465-3500; f: (907) 465-3532
Arkansas Jim Guy Tucker p: (501) 682-2345; f: (501) 682-1382
Colorado Roy Romer p: (303) 866-2471; f: (303) 866-2003
Delaware Tom Carper p: (302) 739-4101; f: (302) 739-2775
Florida Lawton Chiles p: (904) 488-2272; f: (904) 487-0801
Georgia Zell Miller p: (404) 656-1776; f: (404) 657-7332
Hawaii Benjamin J. Cayetano p: (808) 586-0034; f: (808) 586-0006
Indiana Evan Bayh p: (317) 232-4567; f: (317) 232-3443
Kentucky Paul Patton p: (502) 564-2611; f: (502) 564-2735
Maine (Ind.) Angus S. King, Jr. p: (207) 287-3531; f: (207) 287-1034
Maryland Parris N. Glendening p: (410) 974-3901; f: (410) 974-3275
Missouri Mel Carnahan p: (314) 751-3222; f: (314) 751-1495
Nebraska E. Benjamin Nelson p: (402) 471-2244; f: (402) 471-6031
Nevada Bob Miller p: (702) 687-5670; f: (702) 687-4486
North Carolina James B. Hunt, Jr. p: (919) 733-4240; f: (919) 715-3175
Vermont Howard Dean, M.D. p: (802) 828-3333; f: (802) 828-3339
Washington Mike Lowry p: (360) 753-6780; f: (360) 753-4110
West Virginia Gaston Caperton p: (304) 558-2000; f: (304) 342-7025

President Clinton: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20500 Phone: 202-456-1414 Fax: 202-456-2883

Please use the following Sample Letter to write to your Democratic Governor:

Dear Governor [NAME],
I am writing to you as both [position] of [organization] and a concerned constituent to urge you to send a clear, unequivocal message to the White House, your fellow governors, your constituency, and the press, that you support the Clinton administration and its stand on preserving Medicaid, a program on which more than 36 million Americans -- among them poor and medically needy women and children, the frail elderly, and the disabled, including people living with HIV/AIDS -- now rely for access to basic health care and life-saving drugs.

A little over two weeks ago, the AIDS community was heartened to hear President Clinton affirm at the White House HIV/AIDS Summit his conviction that the Medicaid health care "safety net" program should be preserved as an entitlement program with significantly less cuts in projected funding than the GOP leadership has proposed. We were heartened because the President's words represented very real hope in the fight to defeat the GOP leadership's block grant-and-slash proposal for a program that finances basic health care for about half of all people living with HIV disease. Much political maneuvering has taken place in the two weeks since the White House summit, maneuvering that could undermine the President's position on Medicaid. Specifically, there is a fear in our community that in budget negotiations, in which the nation's 50 governors are serving a pivotal role, a deal may be struck (between the 31 Republican governors and the President's core constituency of 17 Democratic governors) that embraces the GOP leadership's block-granting proposal or that dramatically weakens federal requirements and protections that ensure that our most vulnerable citizens receive comprehensive, high quality health care.

The AIDS community, and in particular the Clinton administration, needs to hear your support for maintaining this vitally important program and the guarantee to basic health care it has come to represent since its establishment thirty years ago. We are down to the wire and cannot afford for any one of the key players in this debate, among them this state's governor, to be silent on this issue. Please support President Clinton in his efforts to save Medicaid and prevent the needless suffering and hastened deaths the GOP leadership's devastating Medigrant proposal would cause for millions of this country's most vulnerable citizens.

Other Important Items:

Department of Defense (DoD):
The Department of Defense Authorization Bill Conference Report, which contains the Dornan Provision, was approved by the House of Representatives today by a vote of 267-149. The Dornan provision calls for the discharge of 1,150 service members with HIV. It is now up to the Senate to defeat the Conference Report. A vote in the Senate is likely to occur on December 18th and the President is expected to veto the bill. Calls are needed to Senators urging them to oppose the DoD Authorization Bill Conference Report. Senate switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Call today and urge your senators to oppose the conference report and the Dornan provision.

VA/HUD:
The VA/HUD spending bill passed the Senate by a vote of 54-44 on Thursday. The bill passed the House on December 7. President Clinton has promised to veto the bill because of cuts in domestic programs like Americorps.

VETO Message:
The president must be told to give priority to housing programs in post-veto negotiations. Call and fax President Clinton NOW. Tell him that he must not sell out the homeless and those at risk of homelessness, including people living with HIV/AIDS. Tell him housing programs like HOPWA and McKinney/HAG must be his top priorities, and that he should insist on the highest possible funding levels for these programs. Let him know that taking money from housing programs to restore funding for Americorps (or any other program) is totally unacceptable.

Continuing Resolution: The continuing resolution which ended the last federal government shutdown, expires at midnight tonight. As of 6:00 p.m. tonight, budget talks have broken down. It is unclear how Congress and the Clinton administration will proceed to avoid another government shutdown.

Centers for Disease Control Public Service Announcements:
On Friday, December 1 (World AIDS Day), the CDC released its newest HIV prevention public service campaign targeted to America's young people. On Tuesday, December 12, NBC Dateline aired a segment on the PSA's and have made the PSA's the survey question of the week. To participate in the survey please contact NBC Dateline at: (e-mail) Dateline@nbc.com; (phone) 1-900-678-4622; and (fax) 212-664-3330. Tell NBC that you support the PSA's and we need effective and honest information about HIV transmission and HIV prevention.

The Family Research Council is promoting the NBC survey among its membership, asking them to call and oppose the campaign. Please call, e-mail and fax NBC Dateline ASAP. The survey ends Monday.

For more information, contact
AIDS Action Council
1875 Connecticut Avenue NW #700
Washington DC 20009
202-986-1300 x 3021
202-986-1345 (fax)
202-332-9614 (tty)

E-Mail: aidsaction@aidsaction.org
AIDS HIV Issues/AIDS Alerts