Obama Administration Releases National AIDS Strategy
The Obama Administration’ released the National AIDS Strategy today, calling for a 30% reduction in the rates of new HIV infections over the next five years, and making sure that at least 85% of patients within three months of their diagnosis. Since a grand speech telling the HIV virus to stop infecting so many people won’t do the trick – regardless of how skillful an orator the President is – the plan aims to re-direct HIV/AIDS dollars to prevention programs aimed at African Americans and gay and bi men, and to import administrative reforms from President George W. Bush’s surprisingly successful programs to fight AIDS in developing countries that hold agencies accountable to specific statistics and aim to avoid duplication of effort.
Some things will not be changing – the Ryan White programs that fund treatment for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured Americans will stay, for example, and the $19 billion spent per year on fighting HIV will remain about the same – but Federal funding formulas will be reorganized to give more money to states with a higher number of cases. Minnesota may loose out under the new formula, as the state has many fewer cases than larger states like New York.
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