Make Three Calls to Protect Medicaid for People With HIV/AIDS
POSITIVE ACTION ALERT
Make Three Calls to Protect Medicaid for People With HIV/AIDS
You know that Medicaid is a lifeline for people with HIV/AIDS: it provides care and treatment to the majority of people living with AIDS and 90% of children with AIDS.
Next month, members of Congress will make final decisions on where and how to cut at least $10 billion in entitlement health programs over the next five years in their final budget package. Medicaid will be the main target in these cuts.
Congress has already discussed harmful new changes to Medicaid as a way to carry out these cuts, including:
- New mandatory co-payments and cost sharing that will pile up every month on people who need multiple prescriptions and doctor visits to survive;
- New rules that would let doctors and pharmacies deny care or services if you can't pay all the co-pays;
- New rules that would let states eliminate coverage of essential services like case management or even some primary health care visits.
With so many states facing fiscal crises, any cut in Medicaid funding is going to deny care and treatment to people who need it. And people with HIV/AIDS who lose their Medicaid coverage or benefits will be pushed into other programs, like the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and other Ryan White CARE Act programs that are already overwhelmed and underfunded.
There's still time to let your elected representatives know how important Medicaid is for people with HIV/AIDS. We've got to tell them they shouldn't make deep cuts or harmful changes. Please join us in a national call-in week and help deliver that important message!
How you can help:
Call the district offices of your two U.S. Senators and your U.S. Representative. Congress is on recess during August and many of our representatives are home in their districts. We want to send them a clear message now so that they know about our needs when they get back to Washington, DC. (You can find district office phone numbers for your Representative and Senators at www.vote-smart.org. Type in their names (or use your zip code) in the upper left corner.)
When you call the district office, tell whoever answers the phone:
"I am a constituent calling about the proposed Medicaid cuts. This is a life-and-death issue for people living with AIDS and HIV here in (your community). I'm really concerned about new co-pays that would hit the hardest on people who need health care the most. And our state can't afford new cuts in federal funding for Medicaid - they'll push that right down to cut our care. We need (Senator/Congresswoman/Congressman ____) to stand up for us and block these cuts - people with AIDS need your help now to survive."
Thanks to the HIV Medicaid/Medicare Working Group, a national coalition of advocates working to protect and expand Medicaid and Medicare for people living with HIV/AIDS, for crafting this alert. For more information about the working group, please write to LeiChou@aol.com. For more information about NAPWA, visit www.napwa.org.