Testing, AIDS Drugs, and Health Care
From AIDS Action Council
2000
A note from TheBody.com: Since this article was written, the HIV pandemic has changed, as has our understanding of HIV/AIDS and its treatment. As a result, parts of this article may be outdated. Please keep this in mind, and be sure to visit other parts of our site for more recent information!
Testing: A New National Imperative
- There are 300,000 HIV-positive Americans who aren't even aware of their status, putting their health and the health of others at risk.
- All people at risk for HIV must be encouraged to get tested so they can know their status and take steps to protect their own health and the health of others.
- HIV testing must be made safe, swift and simple.
- Anonymous testing must be made available in every corner of the nation as it provides the best incentive to get people at risk into testing so they can protect their own health and the health of others.
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- Mandatory testing betrays the American people's strong opposition to forced medical testing and would only drive people at risk for HIV underground.
- Enacting mandatory partner notification would also act as a testing disincentive, driving people away from the counseling that is the best way to give people the tools to inform others about their status.
| "If you've got a drug and it works, let's get it tested, let's get it out there and bring the cost down. I think they need to really get into the cost issue, because you've got these great drugs, but nobody can afford them."
-- African-American woman, Atlanta
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New AIDS Drugs: The Truth
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America Supports Health Care That's Fair
Should medicaid cover new AIDS drug therapies for low-income people in the early stages of HIV infection?
Yes 69%
No 20%
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- The current generation of AIDS drugs don't work for everyone and aren't a cure for anyone.
- These drugs cost as much as buying a new car every year, require an oppressive pill-taking regimen and their long-term effectiveness is unknown.
- While we need to continue to search for a genuine cure, we need a parallel effort to stop HIV infections in the first place.
- Young people need to know that AIDS drugs cost $40 a day and condoms cost one dollar and are proven to stop HIV and save lives.
- The overpricing of AIDS drugs by pharmaceutical manufacturers makes these drugs readily available only to the wealthiest and best-insured Americans.
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Health Care That's Fair
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- Under current Medicaid policy, an HIV-positive individual qualifies for benefits, including access to protease inhibitor drugs that can prevent the progression of HIV disease, only when they are diagnosed with full-blown AIDS.
- In essence, the federal government is telling low-income HIV-positive Americans that they can't receive AIDS-preventing drugs until they develop AIDS. If automobile safety regulations followed this model, air bags would only be required in cars that have already crashed.
- While the protease drugs have been responsible for a halving of AIDS deaths, the real story is that this figure would be significantly lower if an entire class of Americans were not being denied access to today's state of the art treatment and care.
- Nowhere does the Medicaid absurdity make itself more apparent than in the African American community where AIDS remains the number one killer among those age 25-44.
- Reinventing Medicaid to cover healthier HIV-positive Americans would save lives and save money.
- Every major study of protease cocktails has proven that early treatment provides the best route for preventing the onset of illness.
- Moreover, the cost of providing drugs early would offset the exorbitant hospitalization and other medical costs that AIDS treatment incurs.
- But Reinventing Medicaid would not just prevent AIDS, it would help prevent HIV infection in the first place by bringing HIV-positive people into treatment programs that provide education about preventing transmission to others.
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"I wouldn't take the AIDS test . . . I don't want to be blackballed or on the black list . . . "
-- White college educated man, Milwaukee
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A note from TheBody.com: Since this article was written, the HIV pandemic has changed, as has our understanding of HIV/AIDS and its treatment. As a result, parts of this article may be outdated. Please keep this in mind, and be sure to visit other parts of our site for more recent information!
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This article was provided by AIDS Action Council. 
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