Statement from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on World AIDS Day:
This World AIDS Day is particularly poignant because this year we have marked the 30th
anniversary of the first reports of AIDS. Today, as we remember those
we have lost, we also celebrate the progress we have made and look
expectantly to the future. Together, we are taking this year’s World
AIDS Day theme, “Leading with Science, Uniting for Action,” encouraging
HIV testing, and helping those living with HIV to get the life-saving
care and treatment they need.
Reaching
the goal of a world without HIV/AIDS will require us to take full
advantage of recent scientific discoveries; implement policies that
support HIV prevention, testing, and treatment efforts; and work
together to meet the needs of those at risk for, and living with,
HIV/AIDS. We are moving ahead quickly on the science. In the last year,
researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) demonstrated that
people who were being treated for their HIV disease reduced the risk of
transmitting HIV to their sexual partners by 96 percent. That finding
offers great hope for our “treatment as prevention” efforts and for a
future without HIV.
We
are implementing policies to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS
have access to the care and treatment they need. HHS is committing an
additional $35 million to support grants to states for AIDS Drug
Assistance Programs and an additional $15 million to provide services
and treatment to an increased number of patients at HIV medical clinics.
The
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is launching a new national
campaign “Testing Makes Us Stronger” that will promote HIV testing among
black gay and bisexual men, who are experiencing a sharp increase in
rates of HIV infection. Testing is crucial to ending the epidemic
because people who know their HIV status can take steps to protect
themselves and their partners and live longer and healthier lives.
All
these efforts build on a foundation laid by the health care law, the
Affordable Care Act, which dramatically expands access to coverage for
people with HIV/AIDS. The law also bans the worst insurance abuses so
that insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to people with HIV
and other conditions or cancel coverage when someone gets sick or makes
an error on a form. Under the health care law, we’re also expanding
Medicaid so that it will be available to many more Americans with
HIV/AIDS, including single adults.
This World AIDS Day, we can be proud of what we have accomplished.
For more information on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, visit http://www.aids.gov/federal-resources/policies/national-hiv-aids-strategy/.
For more information on parts of the new health care law, visit www.healthcare.gov.