Three Ways to Shape Healthcare Reform

As conservatives loudly birddog townhalls, we supporters of healthcare reform need to speak up and call on Congress to institute meaningful healthcare change, with expanded Medicaid access!

1) Share your story about how the U.S.‘s piecemeal HIV care system has affected your health. The HIV Health Access Working Group is looking for HIV-related stories to share with the media to highlight HIV-related healthcare-reform priorities. Are you living with HIV and have unmet healthcare needs? Have you struggled with getting proper insurance coverage? Click the link above and share your story.

The Working Group is also looking for stories from allied health professionals, nurses, case managers, HIV test counselors, social workers, housing advocates, substance abuse treatment counselors, harm reduction staff, legal aid workers, and others who may or may not be living with HIV but see the healthcare inequities every day.

2) Attend a healthcare town hall meeting this month, and share your story there. There are meetings scheduled in 11 states so far by members of the House of Representatives: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas,Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Texas. Tell your rep why health care is important to you!

3) Sign this petition from HIV Health Care Access Working Group calling for a public health plan and expanded Medicaid. The petition will be submitted to members of Congress. The petition states:

Health care reform will do little to end the widening racial, ethnic, regional and poverty related disparities in access to HIV care without:

• A national public plan to provide a national standard and a stable, reliable and affordable coverage option to people with HIV across the country, regardless of where they live: A commitment to end the epidemic and secure the well-being of people with HIV in the U.S. cannot be met without a national public plan. People with HIV/AIDS in every state across the nation need healthcare coverage they can count on. People who are HIV negative need guaranteed access to comprehensive primary and preventative care to remain uninfected. A meaningful public plan option will set a comprehensive standard for benefits coverage and affordability across the country; take advantage of economies of scale to lower costs for prescription drugs and other services; and create a competitive system based on quality rather than profit.

• A federally funded expansion of Medicaid coverage to all low-income individuals up to 200% of the federal poverty level: [1] Medicaid serves as a lifeline for the people with AIDS that qualify for coverage. The cost sharing protections and benefits package tailored to low income individuals are vital to ensure access to HIV care and treatment. The current eligibility rules bar most people with HIV from Medicaid coverage until they develop AIDS and are disabled and living on very low incomes of around $674 a month. Without Medicaid coverage, many people with HIV lack reliable access to the treatment necessary to keep them healthy and prevent progression to AIDS. As an interim measure, we urge to immediately adopt the Early Treatment for HIV Act to allow states the option of covering people with HIV regardless of disability status until a full expansion is implemented.

Posted on August 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm

OUR MISSION Housing Works is a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Our mission is to end the dual crises of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, the provision of lifesaving services, and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain our efforts.

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