AIDS Group Blasts Funding Cuts

AIDS activists are blasting two recent decisions by Congress they say will harm low-income HIV-positive Americans. A budget reconciliation package cuts millions from Medicaid, which is the nation's number 1 provider of HIV care, and the fiscal 2006 Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations measure underfunds almost all public health care programs, claims the AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth, and Families. Combined, the two measures will hamper the ability of poor HIVers to access medical care, support programs, and antiretroviral treatment. 'This is entirely unacceptable, especially when it was announced in 2005 that over 1 million American are now living with HIV,' says Ivy Turnbull, president of AIDS Alliance. 'This lays bare the misguided funding priorities of our elected officials.'