|
GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS
URGES DELAYED ACTION ON RYAN WHITE CARE ACT REAUTHORIZATION
Asks Incoming Congress to Craft a Better Bill
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) urges Congress to postpone action
on the reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act until after
January 2007. The HIV/AIDS Treatment and Modernization Act, passed
by the House and currently under consideration by the Senate would
decimate care and treatment in HIV/AIDS epicenters. An alternative
proposal currently in the offing to move from a five-year to a
three-year reauthorization would likewise devastate New York City
and New York State, which stand to lose roughly $18 million and $9
million respectively in the first year alone.
Congress has an opportunity to do better. The incoming leadership
has signaled that health care will be a top priority for the 110th
Congress. We call on our elected officials to seize this opportunity;
to take the future of the CARE Act — the future of people living with
HIV and AIDS out of the hands of a lame duck Congress and work for
a better, fully funded bill next session.
Right now, Senators Clinton, Schumer, Lautenberg, and Menendez
are all that stand in the way of a ruinous reauthorization bill that
would destabilize HIV/AIDS care, treatment, testing, counseling, and
other support services. New York and New Jersey, however, are not
the only parts of the country that would suffer should reauthorization
in its current form pass the Senate.
GMHC is actively committed to a national safety net that ensures
comprehensive, accessible, quality HIV/AIDS care in every city, state,
and region. Response to the epidemic cannot be a zero sum equation
whereby one locality secures desperately needed resources only when
another is endangered. The bill before the 109th Congress sets city
against city, state against state. No one should be punished for
having HIV and living in the "wrong" place. The 110th Congress can
craft legislation that safeguards existing HIV/AIDS service delivery
infrastructure and provides genuine access to treatment and care to
every HIV positive person in the United States.
* * *
Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) is a not-for-profit, volunteer-supported
and community-based organization committed to national leadership in the
fight against AIDS. Our mission is to reduce the spread of HIV disease,
help people with HIV maintain and improve their health and independence,
and keep the prevention, treatment and cure of HIV an urgent national
and local priority. In fulfilling this mission, we will remain true to
our heritage by fighting homophobia and affirming the individual dignity
of all gay men and lesbians. We provide services and programs to over
15,000 men, women and families that are living with or affected by HIV/AIDS
in New York City. For more information, please visit www.gmhc.org.
© 2006 Gay Men's Health Crisis
|
home 
