New AIDS Report Indicates Allocation of Federal Funding Needed

Findings in a study conducted by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and CarsonCompany, LLC indicate funding allocations under The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 (S.1793) are not getting to communities of color in sufficient amounts. The authors of the study, Allen Herman, MD, noted epidemiologist and expert on AIDS and health disparities and Windy Carson-Smith, attorney and health policy regulatory expert, noted the results of their study showed that funds are not adequate to address the problem in the African American and Latino communities which have a larger number of people proportionately who are impacted by the epidemic.

There is a need to restructure funding formulas to reflect improvements in treatment. AIDS is now a chronic illness, with adherence to Highly Active Anti-Retroviral (anti-HIV) Therapies. Funding mechanisms have not be adjusted to fully capture the changing and emerging ethnic and cultural diversity of the epidemic; and, flat line funding of AIDS programs and services, especially within communities of color, where AIDS rates continue to surge has effectively limited the ability of organizations and communities to expand programs to address the needs of the minority community," says Windy Carson-Smith, CEO, Carson Company, LLC.

Care Act funding has been structured to give preferential treatment to communities where the AIDS epicenter existed in the '90's and the census methodology for determining those infected will not be accurate until 2013, when all states will have started counting and not estimating HIV and AIDS patients. The AIDS epicenter(s) have moved to communities of color particularly in the South. Penalties for failure to change census methodologies as wells as low estimates of AIDS/HIV cases reduce the amount of funding apportioned to many communities with large minority AIDS populations.

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009, H.R. 3792 (S.1793) ("Extension Act") was introduced to amend title XXVI of the Public Health Service Act to revise and extend the program to provide life-saving services for people with HIV/AIDS. It was signed by President Barack Obama on October 30, 2009. Although The Extension Act and the Committee report included recommendations to address some of the infrastructure and implementation concerns expressed in earlier versions of the CARE Act, a disconnect will still exist between federal AIDS funding and addressing the needs of communities of color. Provisions of the Act also include expanded care services through healthcare reform and mandated educational and prevention programs. However, without vigilant and an aggressive implementation program the neglect of sufficient funding for services and programs will continue. The report, Following The Money: Tracking Federal AIDS Appropriations to Address Disparities in HIV and AIDS Treatment, Incidence and Prevention is attached in PDF format.