Ryan White AIDS/HIV Treatment Modernization Act

AIDS and HIV are severely misunderstood diseases. When many people hear the condition "HIV," they picture the stereotypical victims: Africans and gay men. But that simply isn't true. HIV and AIDS affect can every race, every age, every person. The Ryan White act began in 1990 as the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergenc Act. This act was designed to amend the Public Health Service Health Act to provide grants to improve the quality and availability of care to individuals and families with HIV disease. In the formal legislation, the purpose is stated that the act is to "provide emergency assistance to localities that are disporportionately affected by the HIV epidemic and to make financial assistance available to states and other public or private entities to provide for the development, organization, cooperation, and operation of more effective and cost efficient systems for the delivery of essential services to individuals and families with HIV disease."

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services describes the new Ryan White Act as:

"The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 provides the Federal HIV/AIDS programs in the Public Health Service (PHS) Act under Title XXVI flexibility to respond effectively to the changing epidemic.
The new law changed how Ryan White funds can be used, with an emphasis on providing life-saving and life-extending services for people living with HIV/AIDS across this country.
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was enacted in 1990 and, in addition to 2006, was reauthorized in 1996 and 2000."

The Key Changes to the 1990 act that came about it 2006 included:

- New method for determining eligibility for Part A (formerly called Title I) funds gives priority to urban areas with the highest number of people living with AIDS while also helping mid-size cities and areas with emerging needs.
- New method for distributing Part A funds directs money to metropolitan areas with the highest number of people who are HIV-positive. It also encourages outreach and testing, which will get people into treatment sooner and save more lives.
- More money will be spent on direct health care for Ryan White clients. Under the new law, grantees receiving funds under Parts A, B, and C (formerly called Titles I, II and III) must spend at least 75 percent of funds on “core medical services.”
- The new law recognizes that HIV/AIDS has had a devastating impact on racial/ethnic minorities in the U.S. African Americans accounted for 49 percent of all HIV/AIDS cases diagnosed in 2005. The new law codifies the Minority AIDS Initiative for HRSA's Ryan White programs.

The Crumbling State of Healthcare

As America's Union Movement shares on its website, "Some 47 million U.S. residents have no health insurance, and the numbers keep growing. Because employers increasingly are moving in the direction of providing Wal-Mart-style health coverage by shifting health care costs to employees, America’s workers struggle to pay higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments—if they can afford such coverage at all. Of the 47 million Americans without health insurance, 8.7 million are children."

As one of the wealthiest nations with the highest standard of living, we should all be concerned about this. In addition to the dire straights of health insurance, "Working families are experiencing double-digit increases in the costs of health insurance, more out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits and skyrocketing prices for prescriptions, forcing many to delay getting needed medical care or worse—to decline coverage for themselves or their families because of cost. Health care costs are rising at five times the rate of inflation. According to the Center for Studying Health System Change, health care spending rose 10 percent in 2002 and that followed a slightly more than 10 percent increase in 2001—the largest jump in more than a decade. In the first six months of 2003, health spending rose another 8.5 percent. Premiums for employer-sponsored coverage increased nearly 13 percent in 2002. As employers refuse to pay their fair share, this trend may result in millions of workers losing their employer-based coverage."