Report Says CARE Act Programs Treat America’s Poorest People Living With HIV/AIDS

A key Federal program in the fight against AIDS serves many of the poorest people with HIV/AIDS in America, according to a report released today during the 2006 Ryan White CARE Act Grantee Conference in Washington, D.C.

2006 marks the 15th anniversary of the CARE Act, whose programs provide primary medical care and support services to more than half a million people living with HIV/AIDS. CARE Act programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

According to 2006 Ryan White CARE Act Progress Report: On the Frontlines, people living with HIV/AIDS are poorer than the general population, and CARE Act clients are poorer still. More than 50 percent of CARE Act clients have household incomes equal to or below the federal poverty level and only 11 percent have any private health insurance. Findings in the report summarize program data from 2004.

“The report reminds us of our mission in administering the CARE Act: to ensure that we address the needs of those living with HIV/AIDS who otherwise would have no access to care,” said HRSA Administrator Dr. Elizabeth M. Duke.

The report shows that CARE Act programs are following the demographics of the disease:

• About half (52 percent) of all CARE Act clients are African American and a quarter (23 percent) are Hispanic;
  
  
• A third (33 percent) of all CARE Act clients are women; and
  
  
• Two percent are over the age of 65 and 10 percent are under age 25.

Since Fiscal Year 2001, the Bush administration has spent more than $10.4 billion in total CARE Act funding to help medically underserved individuals living with HIV/AIDS access life-sustaining care and services. President Bush has requested nearly $2.2 billion in FY 2007, an increase of $95 million over FY 2006.

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