Health Care is Still an Issue for People with HIV/AIDs
The AIDS epidemic was a pivotal point in our nation’s history that forced our people to confront tricky issues concerning, death, disease, homosexuality, affordable treatment, and so much more. Though most people associate the plague as something that was only catastrophic during the 80s and 90s, the AIDS crisis is still far from over. In our country today most people don’t consider HIV and AIDS to be a major problem concerning individuals in our community. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that it’s still a huge issue today that many are ignoring. Because the death rates for individuals with HIV/ AIDS has decreased in the United States, it is often overlooked as being a major concern in our nation. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act put into place by President Obama, removed several of the issues AIDS sufferers were facing when it came to health care. Aspects such as pre-existing conditions, high medication prices, and lack of medicaid assistance were all issues this bill aimed to correct. It is crucial for people to understand that this act has since been under attack in our new presidency and it could have drastic consequences if it is gradually dismantled throughout the next 3 years. It will create a lack of affordable healthcare in the United States and people with this horrible disease will be fighting to stay alive and thrive like they once did. It will leave patients struggling to find healthcare due to the very problems the ACA corrected. We have a responsibility as a nation to not allow these individuals to go unnoticed. If the ACA is gradually repealed throughout this presidency, history will repeat itself and we could have another plague on our hands.
Starting in 1981 some the of the first reports of this mysterious disease were published. Doctors started to discover many previously healthy, young, gay men, were developing severe lung infections, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, and other rare diseases that pointed towards an immunodeficiency disorder. As the next few years went on, more and more people were developing the disease and inevitably suffering horrible deaths from their infections. The terms AIDS was first coined in the year 1982, and though they named the plague, the CDC did little to create reliable and affordable medication. On top of the CDC’s lackadaisical approach to developing treatment options, politicians at the time were very hesitant to discuss the issue. For many, the issue of AIDS was too controversial because it was a disease concerning sex and homosexuality. This was a detrimental mix. The people in power failed their citizens, leaving thousands to suffer and die from this plague. It was because of this that groups such as ACT UP were formed. The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power had a mission then and now, to partake in direct action to end the AIDS crisis. Through their forms of hard and soft activism, they were able to force the Center for Disease Control to create more reliable and affordable medications. They also succeeded in pushing the CDC to expand the definition of AIDS and also to more vocal about the plague our nation was so silently facing (1). Though such organizations revolutionized the way we treat AIDS, the hysteria around the plague has since died off. Though the conditions for HIV/ AIDS patients has improved dramatically since the eighties and nineties, the issue of healthcare for these people is still lingering.
The Affordable Care Act implemented by President Obama in 2010 was a step in the right direction for our nation when looking at affordable health care. It drastically improved the lives of people with conditions such as HIV or AIDs because it removed the ability for insurers to deny people coverage due to pre-existing conditions (5). A pre-existing condition is medical issue that has already been diagnosed for that individual prior to obtaining a new insurance plan. The ACA removed this possibility and more people with HIV/AIDS were able to find reliable insurance. The Affordable Care Act also aims to expand medicaid assistance for individuals with this disease. When the ACA was put into place it offered states the choice to expand their medicaid programs while being fully funded by the federal government (4). Though some states chose not to participate, as many as thirty states did. The chart below shows that so many people benefited from the expansion of medicaid assistance.
Prior to this expansion, in order to quality for medicaid you not only had to be low income but also have some sort of disability. Because patients with HIV weren’t disabled or sick enough, many did not qualify for this assistance until the disease had progressed into AIDS related disabilities. The real kicker here, is that there are prescription drugs out there that stop the progression of HIV into AIDs, but because these individuals were low income, they could not afford the out-of-pocket price for their medications (3). Their HIV related complications turned into AIDS and there was nothing they could do about it. Because medicaid programs were expanded under the ACA so many low income HIV/AIDS sufferers were able to afford the care and prescriptions they needed.
Since Trump has become president, he has actively tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Though he has yet to be successful, it’s imperative we don’t let our guard down. This is an issue that has been at the forefront of his presidency and the issue of healthcare reform will come about again. If the ACA is repealed it could leave patients once again having to worry about pre-existing conditions when seeking healthcare. Insurance companies will once again be able to deny people health care coverage, leaving them to find more expensive options or without healthcare at all. Medicaid coverage will shrink, leaving low income HIV sufferers without the proper medications to stop the progression of their disease. We can’t let this happen. If our healthcare system is to be reformed, we can not go backwards. If anything, we need a reformed system that provides healthcare and insurance for even more people than we do now.
References:
- “ACT UP.” ACT UP NY. Accessed April 26, 2018. https://actupny.com/.
2. Barry-Jester, Anna Maria, and Charlie Smart. “How The GOP Bill Could Change Health Care, In 8 Charts.” FiveThirtyEight. March 20, 2017. Accessed April 26, 2018. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-gop-bill-could-change-health-care-in-8-charts/.
3. Dawson, Lindsey, and Jennifer Kates. “What Is at Stake in ACA Repeal and Replace for People with HIV?” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. May 12, 2017. Accessed April 23, 2018. https://www.kff.org/hivaids/issue-brief/what-is-at-stake-in-aca-repeal-and-replace-for-people-with-hiv/.
4. “The Affordable Care Act and HIV/AIDS.” HIV.gov. March 16, 2018. Accessed April 25, 2018. https://www.hiv.gov/federal-response/policies-issues/the-affordable-care-act-and-hiv-aids.
5. “History of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).” EHealth Insurance Resource Center. March 05, 2018. Accessed April 26, 2018. https://resources.ehealthinsurance.com/affordable-care-act/history-timeline-affordable-care-act-aca.
