Coburn HIV Prevention Act Rears its Deceptive Head - Again!March 18, 1997 On March 12th, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced H.R. 1062, the HIV Prevention
Act of 1997.*
Rep. Coburn is circulating his bill for co-sponsorship, and to date has 72 co-sponsors. The majority of the co-sponsors have traditionally not been supportive of AIDS issues. We were surprised that the following seven Reps. signed on to Coburn's bill however: BRIAN BILBRAY (R-CA), TOM DAVIS (R-VA), GREG GANSKE (R-IA), SCOTT KLUG (R-WI), SCOTT MCINNIS (R-CO), SUSAN MOLINARI (R-NY) & JIM SAXTON (R-NJ). Call Tracy Mickens-Hundley at ext. 3053 for further information on other co-sponsors. Unfortunately, the American Medical Association has also lent its support to this bill and is circulating a letter of support to all members of the House.
AIDS ActionCall your Representatives and urge them NOT to co-sponsor the Coburn HIV Prevention Act of 1997.* If your Representative has signed on to the bill--especially those listed above--urge them to reconsider their sponsorship.
Under Coburn's bill, states must change their laws to implement the provisions of the Coburn bill in order to receive federal Medicaid funds. Fifty-three percent of adults and 90% of children living with AIDS rely on Medicaid to receive basic health care services. The Coburn bill specifically provides that states can pass Coburn-required laws or regulations that violate current requirements of the Ryan White Care Act and still get Care Act funds. The Ryan White Care Act requires states to meet certain requirements in order to receive Ryan White dollars, such as having laws protecting confidentiality. The Coburn bill would render these and all other protections of the Ryan White Care Act meaningless. The Coburn bill includes provisions that:
And while the Coburn bill contains a non-binding, non-enforceable "Sense of Congress" that confidentiality "should" be maintained in implementing the Coburn provisions, it specifically directs states to ignore existing Care Act provisions and forces them to either eliminate any existing state law protections or risk losing federal medicaid funding. The Coburn bill includes several other "test and report" provisions dealing with everything from funeral homes to adoption agencies, all of which are state-law issues and none of which are "national" problems.
ConclusionMany of the policies advocated in the Coburn bill have explicitly been rejected as ineffective and prohibitively expensive by medical, public health and prevention experts nationwide. Others are unnecessary and confusing variations of current law. And the Coburn bill as a whole will just tie the hands of states and communities already implementing real prevention programs and practices to stop the spread of HIV locally.At this time it is unclear how quickly this bill will move in the House, but the more support it gets in congress, the harder it will be to stop these provisions from becoming federal law. Now is the time to communicate your opposition to this bill to your Reps. and keep them from signing on. We have heard that Senator Nickels (R-OK) plans to introduce a companion bill in the Senate. We will let you know when/if that happens as well. More updates to come! * Many bills have been called the "HIV Prevention Act", so to avoid confusion when communicating with your Reps., always refer to Coburn's bill as the "Coburn HIV Prevention Act of 1997."
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