A compromise
federal spending package for 2006 approved by Congress this
week will hurt low-income HIV-positive people across the
country, AIDS activists say. The spending bill cuts
$39.7 billion from a host of federal programs,
including Medicaid, which is specifically expected to
reap $4.8 billion in federal savings due to increased fees
for program participants.
Under the
Republican-backed spending bill, passed 212-206 by
the House on Monday and approved Wednesday in the
Senate when Vice President Dick Cheney broke a
50-50 tie, state-run Medicaid programs will be able
to charge higher premiums for access to some program
services and boost co-pays for prescription drugs,
doctor visits, and hospital stays. In the past,
Medicaid participants who could not immediately afford
program premiums and co-pays were allowed to continue
to receive medical care, but the new law allows states
to deny services to those who do not pay premiums
within 60 days or who do not have the ability to immediately
pay co-pays for prescription medications and health
care access.
The compromise
spending measure also eliminated a Senate-backed proposal
that extended Medicaid coverage to HIV-positive people who
have not yet progressed to an AIDS diagnosis. Backers
of the measure say it would have helped tens of
thousands of poor HIV-positive Americans stay healthy and
avoid deteriorating to AIDS, but the amendment was
eliminated by House and Senate lawmakers seeking a
compromise on the spending package.
AIDS groups
blasted lawmakers for cutting medical services to low-income
Americans, particularly HIV-positive people who receive care
through government health programs.
"On HIV and AIDS,
Congress handed over authority to extremists with the
potential to harm thousands of Americans," Human Rights
Campaign president Joe Solmonese said Wednesday in a
press statement. "It is unacceptable to pull the rug
out from under hundreds of thousands of our neighbors
living with HIV/AIDS and simply say 'Your government is not
there for you.' We should be focusing on ways to improve
these programs, not shoving them onto the cutting-room
floor."
David Gartner,
policy director with the Global AIDS Alliance, told The
Philadelphia Inquirer that a similar 2003 law
in Oregon that raised Medicaid premiums and co-pays for
services resulted in nearly half of the Medicaid
participants dropping out of the program. He expects
the same sort of impact on a national level under the new
federal Medicaid changes. "The cuts to the Medicaid
program would be devastating to all people on
Medicaid," he said prior to the Senate's
Wednesday vote.
The spending
bill, which President Bush has pledged to sign, also makes
steep cuts to other essential federal programs, including
Medicare and student loan programs.
Senate Democratic
leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who joined all of the
Senate Democrats in voting against the measure, told the
Associated Press the bill "caters to lobbyists
and an elite group of ultraconservative ideologues
here in Washington, all at the expense of middle-class
Americans." (Advocate.com)