AIDSWatch is NAPWA's annual DC-based congressional advocacy event, and we're asking you to participate. By meeting with your members of Congress, you will help make the case for increased HIV/AIDS program funding. Who better than people living with HIV to talk about how these programs save our lives?

Here's the deal: Many people want to come to DC but cannot afford to do so. We would like to be able to provide everyone with financial assistance to get to DC for AIDSWatch, but this year we simply cannot. But here's the good news: You can meet with members of Congress or their staff members, either on Capitol Hill or in district offices in or near your home town. The important thing is that you participate in AIDSWatch and use your voice! Please read on.

NAPWA cannot do AIDSWatch without you, and AIDSWatch needs you this year more than ever before. Despite some good news from President Bush who proposes a bit of new money for a domestic AIDS initiative to increase access to HIV testing in African-American communities and to provide AIDS medications to those living in states with waiting lists, the sad truth is that the demand for AIDS services, both here and abroad, for comprehensive care, prevention,housing, treatment and research, continues to increase while funding continues to remain essentially flat.

The Ryan White CARE Act is being stretched to its tipping point. In addition to the brutal "normal" math where an estimated 40,000 Americans continue to become infected with HIV each year while CARE Act funding continues to remain essentially the same, this year we have the added challenge of 60,000 or more people living with HIV who used to get their medications from Medicaid but who now as a result of the Medicare drug bill have had to join Medicare Part D drug plans, whose rules include a specific prohibition against using ADAP to cover newly-initiated cost-sharing and so-called "doughnut holes" for those of us most vulnerable. Another example of the current funding situation is that President Bush's proposed $15 million increase to the Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS program is cold comfort indeed to people living with HIV/AIDS who join countless millions of other low-income Americans facing drastic cuts in Section 811 housing programs. It's not a pretty picture.

People living with HIV/AIDS have been on the forefront of meaningful health care reform since the epidemic emerged in the U.S. in the early 1980s. We must speak up, not only for ourselves, but also for all of our sisters and brothers who rely on our government to help us stay healthy and alive.

Joining AIDSWatch 2006 is as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Commit to participating as an AIDSWatch participant this year on May 8-10.

2. Decide if you can come to DC. (You should arrive the night before to be ready for the advocacy training which begins bright and early on Monday, May 8 at the NEA Auditorium at 16th & M Streets NW.)

3. Register at en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=66213423&u=610744 for AIDSWatch, either if you will be coming to DC or if you will have meetings with your members of Congress at home.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Archive.