Activists back early-treatment HIV bill

Several key AIDS organizations have announced their support for the Early Treatment for HIV Act, which took the floor Thursday under the direction of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla. The bill would allow states to extend Medicare coverage to uninsured low-income patients with HIV before they progressed to AIDS.

"This law will prolong and dramatically improve the quality of people's lives by increasing access to care and treatment when it is most helpful," said Rebecca Haag, executive director of AIDS Action, in a press release from the organization. "In most states, Medicaid now only covers HIV drugs and treatment after a person receives an AIDS diagnosis, when it is much too late in their disease progression; not when treatment and drug therapy can most improve people's health outcomes."

According to the AIDS Action, a 2003 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed the bill would lead to overall savings in state and federal health care programs. With access to antiretroviral therapy, HIV-positive people would experience slower progression of the disease, leading to a 50 percent decrease in the number of deaths of HIV-positive Medicare users.

"It's just unimaginable today that Medicaid doesn't automatically cover poor people with HIV in our country," said Dr. Gene Copello, executive director of The AIDS Institute, in a news release from the organization.

"When current Medicaid rules were written, people with HIV quickly progressed to AIDS, but with the advent of antiretroviral drug treatment, people with HIV stories related to Activists back early-treatment HIV bill.

SUMMARY: The bipartisan House bill would allow states to extend Medicare to uninsured low-income patients with HIV before they progress to AIDS.
(source : news.yahoo.com)