Specific Policy Demands for Nov. 20th Protest

⇒ The next president’s transition team must meet with people living with HIV and community activists to hear firsthand the devastation of the HIV epidemic at home and abroad, and hear solutions to effectively fight HIV/AIDS.

⇒ The next President, within his first 100 days, must develop a National AIDS Strategy  which

1. Guarantees care and treatment for all people with HIV in the US

  1. As part of a plan to provide quality affordable health care for all, guarantee universal access to life-saving HIV treatment, care and prevention, including improvement of existing public health programs (such as Medicare, Medicaid and Ryan White programming).
  2. Enact the provisions of Early Treatment for HIV Act as as separate law or as part of national health coverage plan, reforming Medicaid regulations that require people to become sick before getting treatment.
  3. Support a budget of $929 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in the omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal year 2009 to eliminate AIDS drug waiting lists.
  4. Ensure that everyone who tests HIV positive has guaranteed access to appropriate and effective treatment, care and prevention services.
  5. Permit Health and Human Services to transfer Ryan White funding from political entities in Puerto Rico to an independent third party administrator, to stop the deterioration of health care for people living with HIV/AIDS in Puerto Rico.


2. Ensures housing is available for all people with HIV

  1. Expand HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS) by an increase of $470 million in the omnibus appropriation bill for fiscal year 2009.
  2. Remove the 24-month lifetime cap on housing assistance through Ryan White-funded housing assistance. Require HRSA to reverse this regulation and work with Congress to clarify the important role of housing in supporting access to healthcare in the next Ryan White reauthorization.


3. Ensure HIV Prevention Justice

  1. Lift the federal ban on funding for syringe exchange programs. Encourage state policymakers to support this effective life-saving intervention.
  2. Replace funding for harmful abstinence-only programs with funding for comprehensive sex education--proven to reduce unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Young people have a right to medically accurate, evidence-based information to protect their sexual health.
  3. End the drastic underfunding of domestic HIV prevention by providing an additional $877 million in the omnibus appropriations bill for FY 2009 and an additional $4.8 billion over 5 years, the amounts specified by CDC in the Congressional hearing on why HIV infection in the U.S. is at such high levels.
  4. Develop public health programs and policies to confront anti-gay bias and violence, in order to end homophobic practices that increase vulnerability to HIV among gay men of all races, in whom HIV rates are on the rise, and to address gender bias and violence against women and transpeople.
  5. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and CDC must collaborate with community partners on a comprehensive research program on HIV prevention in the most affected communities -- including people of color, transpeople and gay men of all races-- that includes research on structural factors such as poverty, access to health care and housing.
  6. Provide support for community groups creating effective HIV prevention programs rather than restricting them to cookie-cutter programs mandated by CDC.
  7. Address HIV and Hepatitis C co-infection.

 

⇒ And the next President must show leadership on global AIDS by:

1. Reforming the US Global AIDS Plan

  1. Eliminate the Prostitution Pledge. US funds must promote fundamental human rights, especially for sex workers and other marginalized persons;
  2. Support comprehensive HIV prevention, and ending the “balanced funding requirement” that prioritizes abstinence and fidelity over male and female condoms and other effective prevention interventions;
  3. Promote access to low-cost generic medication by refraining from seeking or enforcing provisions in U.S. trade agreements that limit a country's right to access generic medication;
  4. Instruct OGAC to insure that at least three million people are supported on treatment over the next five years through bilateral programs, plus additional patients treated by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, for a total of at least four million people.
  5. Integrate family planning with HIV prevention, care and treatment programs to improve access to services and the overall health of those at greatest risk for HIV transmission;
  6. Fully fund efforts in 15 countries to achieve 2.3 doctors, nurses and midwives and 1.8 health auxiliaries (including community health workers) per thousand residents, so the US goals around treatment, prevention and care of HIV can be met.
  7. Instruct the Treasury Secretary to oppose IMF macroeconomic monetary and fiscal policy deals or prescriptions that impede countries’ ability to significantly increase spending on health and education.


2. Fully funding US Global AIDS, TB, and Malaria programs at $59 billion over 5 years. In a time of financial crisis, the poorest in the world cannot be forced to pay for a Wall Street bail out.

  1. $59 billion over five years, with a suggested break out of $5 billion for malaria, $4 billion for TB, $11 billion at least for the multilateral Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, $11 billion for health workers and health systems, and $27 bilateral AIDS treatment, prevention and care in both focus and non-focus countries.
  2. Support an additional $800 million for FY09 above existing appropriations levels for the Global Fund, which would ensure the US is funding its fair-share.