AIDS Issues Update Blog
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After Hasty Vote, Cautious Optimism About Medicaid Reform Proposals
For low-income New Yorkers living with HIV, there are some beneficial, as well as some potentially harmful, suggestions in the Medicaid reform proposals approved last week by the state’s Medicaid Redesign Team.
“There are suggestions in the package that are sketchy, meaning their implications will be unclear until they’re fleshed out,” said terri smith-caronia, Housing Works’ vice president for New York State advocacy and public policy. “But we’re cautiously optimistic. In general, this is not the most problematic package we could have seen.”
The proposals will not become policy until the legislature incorporates them into the 2012 budget. This means advocates for the state’s 4.7 million Medicaid users (64,000 of whom are living with HIV) still have several weeks to press policymakers …
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 5:44 pm
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Cuomo Administration Hijacks Medicaid Redesign Team Process
In a move that stunned and angered many health care advocates, the Cuomo administration ambushed its own Medicaid Redesign Team with last-minute recommendations on Wednesday, and then pushed the advisory group to pass them yesterday after a mere six hours of debate.
The team was slated to spend three days reviewing a package of 39 reforms before voting to send them on to Gov. Cuomo. But the state health department expanded the number of reforms to 79 late Wednesday. Then, on the first day of review, Cuomo official James Introne urged the team to take a vote.
Advocates for Medicaid users, including Housing Works, denounced the hurried process.
“It’s absurd for Cuomo to call this an ‘open’ process,” said terri smith-caronia, Housing Works’ vice …
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 2:37 pm
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D.C. Office Opens for International AIDS Conference 2012; Visa Questions Remain
Today the International AIDS Society announced the opening of its Washington, D.C. coordination office for the 2012 International AIDS Conference.
More than 20,000 people from 200 countries are expected to descend on the U.S. capital for AIDS 2012, as the conference was titled by IAS. The biennial convention is the world’s largest gathering of people working to respond to HIV, and has an enormous role in shaping the international response to the virus.
AIDS activists in Washington, D.C. have said repeatedly that they hope the conference’s placement in their city will force local leaders to take major steps to address the capital’s own HIV/AIDS crisis. There’s some hope this could actually happen: On Wednesday, D.C. Mayor …
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 2:00 pm
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ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Grows to 6,704
Last week the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs grew to 6,704 people across 11 states.
The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased more than 4,000 percent since August 2009, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. Federal and state governments have reacted with little urgency, however. While President Obama’s 2012 budget allots $105 million in additional dollars to the programs over 2010, it’s clear that the problem will not be solved unless states significantly increase their own contributions to the programs.
To help readers keep tabs on the growing ADAP crisis, we are now posting the ADAP …
Posted on February 28, 2011 at 1:57 pm
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NYC’s Top HIV Official Ducks Forum on Graphic AIDS Campaign
Dr. Monica Sweeney, the city’s assistant commissioner for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, did not speak, as scheduled, at last night’s community forum about a controversial HIV campaign that has angered AIDS activists.
The forum was organized by Gay Men’s Health Crisis. Spurred by the release of a visually jarring Department of Health anti-AIDS campaign, the meeting’s goal was to open a discussion about effective ways to construct HIV prevention messages. Sweeney, who up until now has been the public face of the defense of the campaign, was slated to speak on the panel, but sent the DOH’s Dr. Blayne Cutler in her stead.
“The city releases this gory, stigmatizing video, doesn’t consult anyone in the Read More
Posted on February 24, 2011 at 5:25 pm
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In Kato’s Africa, USAID Money Spurred Spread of HIV Criminalization Laws
When police found Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato bludgeoned to death last month in his Kampala home, the news brought renewed public attention to the well-documented U.S. roots of Uganda’s now infamous anti-homosexuality bill.
What’s gone unnoticed in recent years, however, is U.S. patronage of other anti-human rights legislation in Africa that promotes both homophobia and the persecution of people living with HIV. The U.S. Agency for International Development, while publicly denouncing laws that specifically criminalize HIV, has in fact financed their recent rapid dissemination across the African continent.
Millions of dollars in USAID funds have helped spur what the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network is calling a “legislation contagion” that jeopardizes human rights in Africa.
USAID involvement
…Posted on February 23, 2011 at 4:20 pm
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Activist Alert: Sign on to Demand Freedom for Chinese AIDS Activist
AIDS activists and human rights organizations worldwide are calling for the immediate release of Tian Xi, a courageous Chinese AIDS activist sentenced to one year in prison last week.
To fight for Tian’s release, Section 27, a leading health and human rights organization, is sending a letter to Chinese government officials. The letter will also go to the president of the UN General Assembly and leaders of UN and international organizations who can pressure China to free the 24-year-old activist.
Encourage your organization to sign on. To do so, contact Kate Paterson at Paterson@section27.org.za by Monday, February 28.
For years, Tian petitioned Chinese officials to compensate him and thousands of others infected with HIV through China’s contaminated national blood …
Posted on February 22, 2011 at 11:04 pm
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ADAP Watch: AIDS Drug Wait List Grows to 6,452
Last week the wait list to receive lifesaving AIDS medication through the nation’s AIDS Drug Assistance Programs grew to 6,452 people across 11 states. Idaho is the newest state to implement a wait list.
The number of people waiting to receive medication through state-run AIDS drug programs has increased more than 4,000 percent since August 2009, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors. Federal and state governments have reacted with little urgency, however. While President Obama’s 2012 budget allots $105 million in additional dollars to the programs over 2010, it’s clear that the problem will not be solved unless states significantly increase their own contributions to the programs.
To help readers keep tabs on the growing …
Posted on February 21, 2011 at 5:49 pm
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