Hundreds protest HIV funding cuts + video (South Carolina To Cut Entire HIV/AIDS Prevention Budget)

[onehandle]

Source: The State

When Deadra Lawson-Smith moved to South Carolina for a new job in 2006, her insurance company would not cover her pricey HIV medication because it treated a pre-existing condition.

So Lawson-Smith went without her drugs for about a year, her compromised immune system struggling to fight off colds, the flu and other health threats. She ended the year in the hospital, sick with pneumonia.

Luckily, a change in her insurance coupled with an influx of state cash to South Carolina's AIDS Drug Assistance Program enabled Lawson-Smith, 47, to get back on her medication and regain her health. But her good luck - and the luck of about 2,000 other South Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS - may not last.

The current version of the state budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which starts July 1, eliminates all money for the Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs to the state's low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents. The budget also eliminates all money for the state's HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

Read more: http://www.thestate.com/2010/03/18/1205355/hundreds-protest-hiv-funding-cuts.html

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[joycean]

2. You know, I might be wrong here

but it seems to me that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has, in the general American public imaginary, changed from a nationwide problem to an issued face solely by Africa. We see ‘project red’ everywhere, which is great and all, but where is the continued support for assistance at the state level? At the risk of sounding shrill, what does a poor, HIV+ American have to do to get affordable treatment? Go to prison?

[SocialistLez]

7. I wouldn't suggest prison

Many times the same profit motives that plague the health care system for average Americans plagues the prison system.

I recently read a story in Mother Jones ( a back issue) about a woman who died in prison because the prison refused to give her medical treatment. The medical treatment was ran by an HMO and we know how HMOs are when it comes to caring about the medical needs of the people it serves....

[SCantiGOP]

3. you think that is outrageous?

The same damn budget includes a $10 million loan if the Heritage Golf Tournament needs it in 2011 when they lose Verizon as their sponsor. The budget also included the elimination of ALL funding for home-based care for disabled children until federal money became available to save the program for one more year. And, we have the lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 7 cents a pack, and there is a huge fight going on now to raise it by 30 cents (it will still be among the 5 lowest) and put the money into health care programs. So, fuck the sick and the disabled, but thank god our state is safe for rich people in plaid pants to walk around a fucking golf course and smoke cheap cigarettes. I have often commented before on this board: the rest of the country made a huge mistake in 1860; they should have cheered when SC seceded.

[Kittycat]

6. Not trying to sound cruel

Because holy shit - this topic is horrific.

That said, in the bigger picture. How much revenue in tourism does the tournament bring in? If the loan exceeds it's value in tourism, and is certain to be paid back - I don't think you can really compare the two. I'm not a golf fan in the least - but comparing things without examining the practicality of it, isn't wise either.

[pinto]

4. Many states are in a similar boat. CA cut all prevention funds to mid and small sized counties,

chose to focus dollars on counties based on incidence, yet was able to maintain ADAP funding for now. (The state has a standing policy that ADAP be maintained before any other HIV related program.)

[pattmarty]

5. And all these (usually conservative) states will blame it on the................

.................economy. All the states are hurting/cutting in these times, but this makes it a hell of a lot easier for a state like SC to just say, "bad economy". I just want to add it's not just AIDs programs it is ALL the social programs, sometimes justified, sometimes not.

[warm regards]

8. and California too...

http://aids.about.com/b/2009/08/01/california-budget-cuts-to-hit-aids-hard.htm

[pattmarty]

9. California is a whole cluster-fuck scenario all by itself.