PI Action alerts & updates ... 2004
Project Inform Advocacy Update
December 2004
In this Issue
How Do The Election Results Affect
People With HIV?
Healthcare Challenges in President Bush’s Second
Term
TennCare Tenuous: A Sign of the Times?
Reporting on Healthcare for People with HIV
Medicare Prescription Drug Comments Online
PI Perspective is going electronic!
Events
Check This Out
Quote of the Month
How Do The Election Results Affect People
With HIV?
While the impact of the November election on HIV related funding
and legislation is still unknown, we are beginning to get a sense
of the upcoming political climate. President Bush’s re-election,
along with new Members of Congress, administrative officials and
key committee leaders will mean new challenges and opportunities
on a variety of HIV/AIDS and healthcare issues. For more about these
post-election changes, read
this article.
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Healthcare Challenges in President Bush’s
Second Term
President Bush’s first term was not marked by expansion—or
even protection of—the healthcare programs that the majority
of HIV positive people in the United States depend on. Given the
President’s stated priorities, it is not expected that much
will change in the second term A more conservative Congress is also
unlikely to push positive changes to essential healthcare programs.
The priorities that the President has outlined could, in fact,
have very damaging impacts on the programs that serve some of the
most vulnerable Americans, including Medicaid, Medicare and the
Ryan White CARE Act. You can learn more about potential challenges
and how you can be involved here.
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TennCare Tenuous: A Sign of the Times?
The precarious situation for TennCare, Tennessee’s expanded
Medicaid program once thought of as a model, continues. After lawsuits
blocked Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen from restructuring the
program to save money, he threatened to eliminate it—cutting
off healthcare to 430,000 people. In addition, an article () from
Families USA's Ron Pollock said that eliminating the program would
drive up healthcare costs for insured people as providers were forced
to raise rates to cover the costs of uncompensated care.
Advocates believe that the Governor’s proposed “reforms”
would lead to a loss of currently guaranteed essential healthcare.
The potentially damaging components included a “pre-approval”
authority that would allow the state to make significant unspecified
changes in the program to manage spending without federal oversight,
a proposed new definition of medical necessity allowing the state
to provide only the least expensive “adequate” care,
and far-reaching changes to the pharmacy benefit. A
letter was sent by healthcare advocates—including Project
Inform—to Governor Bredesen about this issue.
The situation in Tennessee has not yet been resolved, and the Governor
and advocates are still negotiating. However problems in state Medicaids
such as Tennessee and Mississippi (where state actions are threatening
care for tens of thousands of current beneficiaries) may be just
the beginning of deterioration of care in state programs as healthcare
costs continue to escalate and state economies remain sluggish.
A document
() by Thomas P. McCormack of the Title II Community AIDS National
Network summarizes proposed and enacted state Medicaid cutbacks
and exclusions.
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Reporting on Healthcare for People with
HIV
The Fall
2004 ACRIA Update takes a comprehensive look at healthcare and
drug development and regulatory programs for people with HIV. The
issue includes articles on the Ryan White CARE Act, Medicaid and
Medicare, the Food and Drug Administration, pharmaceutical Patient
Assistance Programs, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and clinical
trials.
The newsletter’s Medicaid
and Medicare article provides further information on those two
programs and ways to take action to protect them.
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Medicare Prescription Drug Comments Online
Thank you again to everyone who submitted public comments in response
to the draft Medicare drug regulations. We know that over 500 people
provided comments about the need for the final regulations to protect
people with HIV/AIDS who will depend on this program for lifesaving
treatment. Many people also participated in a national call-in day
on December 1, reinforcing this message with the Bush Administration.
The federal government has posted many of these public comments
online.
Final regulations are expected to be released early next year.
We will let you know when they are available, as well as any opportunities
to improve them through legislative changes.
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PI Perspective is going electronic!
Beginning with the next issue (#40), Project Inform will be converting
PI Perspective to an electronic format. If would you like to receive
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Since Project Inform understands that not everyone has access to
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Events:
Project Inform’s Website Calendar.
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Check This Out:
ATAC (AIDS Treatment Activist Coalition) has a new website.
Families USA
is a national nonprofit, non-partisan organization dedicated to
the achievement of high-quality, affordable healthcare for all Americans.
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Quote of the Month:
“It will take a bit of heroism from each of us to realize
our visions of our communities, our futures and our lives.”
– Shalini Eddens [Project Wise]
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