NAPWA Blog

A strong ally in the White House…democrats in firm control of Congress–remember when this all looked so promising?

News that President Obama will seek a budget freeze has all of us at NAPWA waiting and worrying.  An across-the-board freeze on HIV/AIDS programs would be devastating.

A freeze on CDC programs would fall $1 billion short of what the HIV/AIDS community believes is needed for effective programs, particularly for HIV prevention efforts which are already being gutted at the state level.  Freezing funding for care programs under Ryan White would leave an $810 million gap in vital services.  The Minority HIV/AIDS initiative could be underfunded by $207 million and housing programs by $75 million.

We hope these are worst case scenarios.  We hope the president’s proposed freeze will be flexible enough to recognize that more people are in care today than ever before, and that until there’s a cure, there’s only prevention.

 We’ll keep you informed with the latest.    We know we have our work cut out for us.  If you haven’t joined us in the fight, now is the time!  Join NAPWA now! 

This week the Obama administration lifted the long-standing ban prohibiting HIV+ visitors from entering the U.S.  (One of NAPWA’s top legislative priorities.)  This week, NAPWA’s President and CEO talked to the Black AIDS Institute about what that can mean for Black Americans.

When someone dies of AIDS, they’re really dying of poverty, racism, homo-hatred, stigma around substance abuse and no health care. African Americans make up 13 percent of the U.S. population and [almost] 50 percent of the AIDS population. Lifting the ban helps remove stigma and saves lives. NAPWA represents 1.1 million Americans living with HIV, over 50 percent of them Black, and we don’t want them to progress to AIDS, [but they can] if they don’t get care. Lifting the ban ensures that we can learn from people overseas how to best get people into care and keep them there.

Read the entire interview here.