| ACTION ALERT!
PROTECT RYAN WHITE HIV FUNDING
SIGN A LETTER TO SENATOR CLINTON
Below is the letter we will send to Senator Clinton on your behalf, asking her
to take leadership in defending the Ryan White CARE Act. Please fill out the form
below with your information to submit your letter and make your voice heard.
Thank you for your support.
The Honorable Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Clinton:
As one of your constituents, I am writing to urge your office to do
all that you can to ensure that the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources
Act (CARE) is reauthorized as soon as possible, and in a form that treats
the needs of persons living with HIV/AIDS in New York responsibly.
As you well know, New York remains, without question, the epicenter
of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States, and relies upon programs
funded by the CARE act to support the backbone of the HIV/AIDS care
infrastructure in our region. Accordingly, I am asking that your office
intensify your leadership on this issue, as New Yorkers and Americans
living with HIV/AIDS throughout the country cannot afford to return to
the pre CARE act days, and the fragmented, inadequate care system that
was in place at that time.
The Ryan White CARE Act has, for fifteen years, provided vital primary
care services, which have allowed persons living with HIV/AIDS to take advantage
of the miraculous advances science has made in treating HIV infection. In
addition, in an increasingly complex epidemic, the program has adjusted to
provide the critical and deeply-needed support services, such as nutrition,
child care, case management and mental health services to enable clients to
remain in systems of care, and live prolonged and healthy lives.
Unfortunately, through his reauthorization principles, the President
and his administration have proposed changes in the Ryan White CARE Act
that would radically alter its hallmark principle of local control, by
severely limiting the services covered under the CARE act, and changing
the formulary used to calculate each region’s allocations, which, combined,
would absolutely decimate New York’s care and services delivery system. While
far from perfect, New York should be justifiably proud of what we have managed
to accomplish in the 25 years of the epidemic. We ask you to stand with us
as we fight to ensure that we do not go backwards in this regard.
The Ryan White CARE Act is a sterling example of what can be accomplished
when government and community work together for the good of public health. Since
Ryan White is federally mandated as a program of last resort, those accessing its
services tend to be the most marginalized, having very little, if any, alternatives
to securing the services through other means. This reality makes it doubly important
that they have a voice in the room when potentially disastrous changes in the CARE
Act are being contemplated. You have shown time and again your ability to be that
voice on our behalf, and we are asking that you continue to do so moving forward
in the Ryan White reauthorization process.
Thank you, as always, for your demonstrated leadership on this and other
important issues affecting people throughout the country, and especially here
in the state of New York.
Sincerely,
© 2005 Gay Men's Health Crisis |
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