HHS Grants First Waiver In Long March Toward Reinventing Medicaid

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Washington, DC -- AIDS Action welcomes the decision of the Department of Health and Human Services to grant a waiver allowing Maine to provide critical drugs to low-income people with HIV before they acquire full-blown AIDS.

"One down, 49 to go," said Claudia French, AIDS Action's acting executive director. "This has been a long time coming, but we've only just begun. Today's announcement will prolong the lives of low-income Mainers with HIV, but we want all HIV-positive Americans to have access to drugs that could keep them from developing full-blown AIDS."

AIDS Action has long advocated reinventing Medicaid to allow disadvantaged Americans living with HIV, but who are asymptomatic, access to the newest AIDS drugs that have proven to stem the effects of the virus. Current Medicaid policy does not provide access to the life-saving drugs for low-income HIV-positive Americans until they develop full-blown AIDS.

Vice President Al Gore announced in 1997 at an AIDS Action Leadership Awards ceremony that the administration would direct HHS to begin the process needed to expand Medicaid to asymptomatic HIV-positive individuals. Today marks the first waiver granted since the Vice President's bold vision was first announced.