Ryan White CARE Act passes House and Senate

Low-income HIV-positive Americans may soon have the continued promise of better access to health care and federal funding.

The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Treatment Extension Act of 2009, or S.1793, passed the House of Representatives on Oct. 21 with a vote of 408 to 9, and was approved by the Senate on Oct. 19.

The bill, if signed into law by President Obama, would provide federal funding to help low-income, uninsured, or under-insured Americans with AIDS gain access to healthcare.

The President's Executive Office released a Statement of Administration Policy on Oct. 19 in support of the Act. "The Administration is committed to strengthening access to acre for people living with HIV/AIDS," the statement read. "The legislation reauthorizes all parts of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program."

"The House and Senate leadership and the Members of the committees worked closely with the HIV/AIDS community to maintain this critical program," said Rebecca Haag, the executive director of the AIDS Action Council.

"This bill will ensure the availability of life saving services for those living with HIV/AIDS in all states and territories while we determine the long term impact of health care reform legislation and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy on the health and well being of those infected, affected and at risk for HIV."

"We call on President Obama to sign the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 to ensure that people living with HIV/AIDS continue to have access to the HIV/AIDS treatment, care and medications that they need," said Haag.

The Act is named after Ryan White, a hemophiliac teenager who died from AIDS after receiving a tainted blood transfusion at the age of 13. After contracting the virus in 1984, White was expelled from his Indiana high school. White remained a strong AIDS awareness and research advocate until his death in 1990.

In 2005, Ryan White care programs aided approximately 500,000 people. The programs helped to fund local and state medical care providers, support services, and healthcare provider training programs.

The original Ryan White CARE Act was enacted into law in 1990, and reauthorized in 1996, 2000, and 2006. The current Ryan White Act will expire on Oct. 31.

"We need to remain vigilant," Ryan White's mother, Jeanne White-Ginder, said before attendees of the 2008 Ryan White meeting. "One way is for us to look back to what did the most to move us out of the dark ages of thinking about AIDS. We put a face on AIDS. Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends. And sons like my own.