Trump will cut the confederate funding for HIV/AIDS health care. The LGBTQ community is alarmed by how Trump administration will treat queer people, particularly those living with HIV. Shortly after the inauguration all references to the LGBTQ community disappeared from the White House’s website.
The LQBTQ advocates are specifically concerned about the Ryan White Care Act. This program provides critical resources for HIV-positive individuals, particularly those in low-income populations. Mike Pence advocated for diverting resources from Ryan White to organizations, and will assume as Trump’s vice president, has given the former Indiana governor pass a law in 2015 giving businesses in that state the right to deny services to LGBTQ customers. Should Pence attempt to weaken at the Ryan White Care Act in his new position, there are possibilities that HIV/AIDS positive that might be affected. Including LGBTQ organizations that advocates for their care.
The state received $88.5 million in Ryan White funding in 2014, the last year the program’s allotment was reported. A failure to reauthorize this funding would result in the dire reduction of services offered to an extraordinarily vulnerable community. It is a matter of life and death for those people living with HIV/AIDS whether or not receiving this funding.
The Chicago-based Test Positive Aware Network, an HIV/AIDS community organization, estimate that the Ryan White Funding comprises 10 percent of the overall budget, or more than $400,000 thousand dollars annually. Not being able to receive the fund may endanger their previous progress on helping HIV/AIDS positive community. According to the Chicago Reader, Munar said that rolling back the Ryan White funding may be devastating to the public health.
According to the Fox News, Under the Ryan White program, people with HIV do not have to worry about the cost it may take for the program fills whatever holes patients may need. Department of Health and Human Services data says that only about 13 percent of HIV-positive people in the U.S. had private health insurance, and 24 percent had no coverage at all this was before the Affordable Care Act was enacted. Ryan White died at the age of 18, just months before the Congress bring about and passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act. With the Affordable Care Act is repealed HIV/AIDS positive patients could rely on the Ryan White Act, however, if the Ryan White Act will be unauthorized then it could not be imagined how things are going to work without them.
