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President Signs Ryan White Re-authorization Bill
Today, October 30, President Obama signed the Ryan White Re-authorization bill, S. 1793, sent to him by Congress. The Ryan White Care Act provides major funding to AIDS programs. However, spending authority, under the act, ended on October 1 of this year. Re-authorization of the legislation was needed to allow continuing federal spending on the various programs supported by the act.
The legislation will continue to fund vital AIDS/HIV programs until 2013 with a funding increase of up-to 5% through all sections of the program, and stipulates a national goal of ensuring 5 million HIV tests are carried out annually.
The bill allocates $2.55 billion for fiscal year 2010, with that figure rising to $2.95 billion by the 2013 fiscal year. Under Ryan White, the Department of Health and Human Services funds services to about 500,000 lower income people per year.
The services funded include things like; outpatient health care, case management, home health and hospice care, housing, nutrition services, and transportation. It also funds; HIV testing, education and prevention, home and community based health care, and HIV medications through the State AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), In addition the act provides funds for local agencies that assess the needs of the HIV population and assist in implementation of services to meet those needs.
The State of California drastically cut its funding for AIDS this year. So the re-authorized Ryan White Care Act funding provides badly needed dollars for HIV/AIDS education, prevention and care in our state.
Boyce Hinman
California Communities United Institute
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