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AIDS money finds way to intended groups
Posted
4-3-2000 Washington. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act reaches the minorities and women it claims to target, according to a General Accounting Office audit. However, Rep. Tom Coburn, MD, R-Okla., who ordered the audit, still finds shortcomings with the program. Janet Heinrich, associate director of Health Financing and Public Health Issues for the GAO, and one of the audit’s authors, said the CARE Act programs "are reaching the populations that don’t have access by other means. In general, the program moneys are reaching the populations they need to reach." But Coburn criticized the low priority of prevention in CARE Act programs and its restriction on people with AIDS. "Because the Ryan White CARE Act only recognizes cases of AIDS, those groups increasingly affected by HIV infection, such as women and African Americans, are not counted when funding is determined," Coburn said. In calling for the audit, Coburn said CARE Act funding formulas favored metropolitan areas over rural areas, and that minorities and women were receiving substandard AIDS treatment. The audit said African Americans, Hispanics, and women "generally receive less appropriate health care for their disease when assessed in terms of physician visits, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and antiretroviral and prophylactic drug therapies," but a greater proportion of CARE funds go toward these underserved groups. The audit also said rural areas were being served in proportion to their number of AIDS cases. The CARE Act provides nearly $1.7 billion in federal funds for health care and support systems for underinsured and uninsured people with AIDS. Since the CARE Act’s inception in 1990, the demographics of AIDS have changed considerably. According to the audit, in the 12 months ending in June, African Americans accounted for 46 percent of reported AIDS cases, while women made up 23 percent of reported cases, up 35 percent and 15 percent, respectively, from 1993. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sen. James Jeffords, R-Vt., introduced a reauthorization bill for the CARE Act on March 29. The bill includes a supplemental state grant for rural and underserved areas and help for those with HIV, as well as AIDS. Coburn also is drafting House legislation that will likely be introduced this week.
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