PI Action alerts & updates ... 2006

Project Inform Denounces Passage of
Budget Cutting Bill; Says to Bush: “Veto this attack
on our poor, our sick, and our children.”

San Francisco, February 3, 2006

Project Inform, a leading national treatment and health care advocacy organization denounced yesterday’s final passage of the budget reconciliation bill. The House of Representatives voted 216-214 in favor of the bill, with thirteen Republicans joining all Democrats and one Independent in voting no. President Bush is expected to sign the bill shortly.

The legislation contains cuts in many vital entitlement programs, including a $4.8 billion cut in Medicaid. A non-partisan analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has found that this bill will increase the number of uninsured in America, and reduce access to health care and treatment for the nation’s most vulnerable people, through increases in Medicaid premiums and co-payments.

“A mere five months after the nation witnessed how poorly the government treated people in need following Hurricane Katrina, Congress and President Bush have waged a further attack on our sickest and poorest people nationwide, including people with HIV/AIDS,” said Martin Delaney, Founding Director. “Have they no shame? Meanwhile, the Senate is considering a $56 billion tax cut bill; it’s clear the goal of these cuts is not to balance the budget but, rather, to decrease the government health care safety net for the neediest in order to increase the wealth of the richest.”

Yesterday’s vote is particularly troubling given President Bush’s strong call for expanding the fight against HIV/AIDS in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, and yesterday’s release of his plans to address domestic HIV/AIDS issues. This release states that “The President has made fighting the domestic spread of HIV/IADS a top priority, and he will continue to work with Congress to support effective prevention and compassionate care and treatment.”

“President Bush can’t have it both ways,” said Ryan Clary, Senior Policy Advocate. “He can not claim that domestic HIV/AIDS is a top priority while cutting the largest federal payer of health care for people living with the disease. He also can’t proclaim that “the state of our union is confident and strong” (as he did in the State of the Union), while signing a bill that will worsen the health crisis in our country. Project Inform calls on President Bush to veto this bill and ask Congress to send him a kinder, gentler budget that doesn’t harm our most vulnerable.”

Medicaid is the largest payer of care for people with HIV/AIDS. It serves 55% of people with AIDS and 90% of children with AIDS. The final budget bill contains numerous provisions that will be harmful to people living with the disease. For example, increases in cost-sharing could result in a co-payment of $120 for each Combivir (just one anti-HIV drug, taken in combination with others) prescription, currently no more than $3. As people with HIV/AIDS drop from Medicaid coverage due to these “reforms”, there will be an increased burden on other public programs, such as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. Some of these state programs are already failing to meet the basic needs of those they serve, and many are struggling with their current caseloads.