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GayCityNews.com | April 7 - April 20, 2022
Biden Administration Looks to Boost HIV/AIDS Funding
President puts an emphasis on PrEP services nationwide; international funding could dip
BY MATT TRACY
The Biden administration is
proposing a $377 million
increase in federal funding
towards the effort to end the
HIV/AIDS epidemic and mapping out
a decade-long PrEP plan to boost HIV
prevention, drawing praise from advocates
who say the additional resources
should help address inequities.
At the same time, however, others
are expressing reservations because
the administration is seeking a reduction
in the President’s Emergency Plan
for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and UNAIDS
funding — both of which deal with the
global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Overall, President Joe Biden’s proposal
for the 2023 domestic budget
calls for a total of $850 million in funds
for the Ending the Epidemic initiative
— including increasing access to PrEP
among people on Medicaid, which would
reduce Medicaid costs for HIV treatment,
according to the White House.
Notably, the budget intends to require
PrEP to be disbursed at no cost for uninsured
and underinsured people, provide
much-needed services in states
and localities, and create a network of
community providers in underserved
areas. According to the White House,
the budget proposal aims to cover PrEP
without cost sharing — something already
underway in many parts of the
country, though not uniformly.
The PrEP4All Coalition, which was
founded in 2019 and works to expand
access to PrEP, said “we strongly support”
Biden’s $850 funding request
and the broader plan to ramp up an
HIV prevention campaign.
The coalition stressed that the
funding must address the gaps in
PrEP services impacting Black,
Latinx, trans, and gender diverse
people. Advocates are also welcoming
the administration’s hepatitis funding
proposal, which exceeds $50 million,
but Carl Schmid, executive director
of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute,
said it still “falls well short of the
community’s request of $140 million”
needed for the national plan to eliminate
hepatitis by 2030.
Others are concerned about the approach
to HIV/AIDS internationally.
The 2023 budget seeks to trim PEPFAR
by $20 million and reduce UNAIDS
funding by $5 million.
“President Biden’s budget ignores
the fact that insufficient budgets are
deadly and pretends that the US can
afford to retreat from its responsibility
to people with HIV and their communities
without repercussions,” Health
GAP executive director Asia Russell
said in in a written statement.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
POLITICS
President Joe Biden hopes to increase the federal
government’s spending on the domestic effort to end
the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
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