HIVHealthReform.org - National Health Reform with an HIV Lens

HIVHealthReform.org is your source for news and information on the impact of national health reform on the lives and health of people with HIV. 

 

Check it out, share it with a friend, learn, and take action!

 

Here's a sample of what you can find there...

Living with HIV? Top 5 Things You Need to Know about Health Care Reform

The new health reform law offers people with HIV unprecedented opportunities to improve their health.  Here are just some of the reasons:

1. Comprehensive, free health coverage for all very low-income people:  Medicaid is the nation’s safety net health program for low-income people, currently covering about four in ten people with HIV/AIDS.  In 2014, Medicaid will expand to provide most low-income people living with HIV access to comprehensive health care.  Read more about this critical low-income health care program.

2. Get affordable, private health insurance: Moderate and middle-income people living with HIV earning between about $15,000 and $44,000 a year will be able to receive tax benefits and financial assistance to purchase private health insurance with comprehensive benefits. Learn why this will transform the fight against HIV.

3. Private health insurance companies will have to play by the new rules:  The health reform law will finally force health insurance companies to treat consumers fairly. Learn more about how people with HIV will benefit.

4. Better Medicare:  For people with HIV who are disabled and on Medicare, the Part D prescription drug benefit is already becoming more affordable. Read more about this and other improvements.

5. Get coverage now:  Need health coverage now before 2014?  Health reform sets up some programs that could help you now, and there are some oldies but goodies you might not know about.  Learn more.

[NEW on LifeLube] Duchess on NHS, Independence Day and family values

[LifeLube is bloody thrilled to present Duchess a new, semi-irregular column featuring the ramblings of an English Duchess. This is the first - more to come.]

Although some of my detractors will say otherwise, I was not even conceived when the National Health Service was created in the UK on the 5th July 1948.

Embodied to provide universal healthcare free at the point of access for all UK nationals, the NHS is one of the few healthcare services in the world that has held onto its socialist basis that healthcare is a basic human right, irrespective of class, age, gender or sexual orientation.

I’ve been blessed with reasonable health so my tax contributions, and those of my husbands, have been mainly spent on those less fortunate, which as a diamonte socialist is fine by me. I mean it may be awful to say, but the rich can’t afford the poor to be ill, toilets don’t clean themselves, so it is everybody’s interest really.

I should confess but completely entre nous, over the years the odd unfortunate run in with something nasty acquired in a questionably dark establishment from a handsome young sailor, has meant a visit to a sexual health clinic. I really despair at the thought of any country where sexual health services are on a payment basis, it is distressing enough to be battling with something amiss down below without having to hack the emergency credit card out of the freezer or take the family jewels into hock. Discreet and to the point, sexual health services were less traumatic than I expected and the introduction of the fast-test HIV testing means I was in and out in less time that it takes to have a facial at Aveda.

It is somewhat ironic that the NHS was founded the day after US Independence Day, not that I’m a colonialist, I mean if you want to run things yourself who am I to want to take the helm, but it is interesting how the two countries have diverged. Despite its size the UK has remained independent from Europe and has held its own on the International stage, some might say at the sake of our local best interests, but hey that’s politics.

The US is much larger and in many ways more traditionalist than the UK, the division between the two polls of politics appears to be growing and the republican rhetoric seems to be more blunt and ruthless than before, but that may all be because I was always distracted by Nancy’s pearls before. The rise of the Tea Party political movement seems in some ways similar to our UKIP and BNP parties, brutal nationalism and a return to ‘traditional’ ‘white’ able-bodied’ ‘heterosexual’ family values all veiled behind delicate cucumber sandwiches and rather questionable tea.

Personally I’ve always wondered when people start mentioning family values, it reminds me of a rather inbred branch of the family who lived in Wales and developed a disturbing and very distinctive shape to their upper dentition a little reminiscent of horses teeth. In these modern times I wonder what family means? Blood relations is the term used on medical forms these days, and the reality of modern life is that few of us spend our lives nestled in the family home. Like any dutiful child I try to have dinner with my parents at least once a month and touch base every week, but I consider my family to be broader than just my blood relations. My friends who have been part of my life for almost half of my years on this earth are family as well, they know my deepest secrets, the shame and the joys that should never been revealed until everyone is very drunk at my wake. Someone once said to me that your family are those who in your darkest moments don’t judge, don’t preach, don’t ask for anything in payment or kind, but simply hold your hand and give you love and support….and on that deep and profound note it’s time for to take the butler out for a spin…until next time!

Duchess xx

Washington Blade: Obama extends protections to gay couples under Medicaid

via Washington Blade, by Chris Johnson

The Obama administration is set on Friday to issue policy guidance to states expanding their ability to offer same-sex couples the same protections afforded to straight couples when they receive long-term care under Medicaid, the Washington Blade has learned exclusively.

Under the new guidance, dated June 10, states have the option to allow healthy partners in a same-sex relationship to keep their homes while their partners are receiving support for long-term care under Medicaid, such as care in a nursing home.

Medicaid kicks in for a beneficiary to receive care after an individual depletes virtually all of their money. To pay for the beneficiary’s expenses under Medicaid, a state could impose a lein, or take possession, of a beneficiary’s home to pay for Medicaid expenses.

However, federal law prohibits imposing this lein if beneficiaries are married to someone of the opposite-sex who’s still living in their home. The new guidance, signed by Deputy Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Cindy Mann, clarifies that states can offer this protection to the healthy partner of a Medicaid recipient in a same-sex relationship.

“A State can have a policy or rule not to pursue liens when the same-sex spouse or domestic partner of the Medicaid beneficiary continues to lawfully reside in the home,” the guidance states.

The Obama administration previously hadn’t articulated whether gay couples could receive these protections under the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage. The guidance doesn’t mandate that same-sex couples receive this protection, but allows states to “incorporate their criteria for determining when to impose a lien in the Medicaid State plan.”

The Department of Health & Human Services had been examining ways to offer more protections to same-sex couples under Medicaid as part of the work it has undertaken for LGBT people, but until now hadn’t issued the policy guidance to states.

Secretary of Health & Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement the new guidance represents a path for low-income same-sex couples to receive care under Medicaid.

“Low-income same-sex couples are too often denied equal treatment and the protections offered to other families in their greatest times of need,” she said. “That is now changing. Today’s guidance represents another important step toward ensuring the rights and dignity of every American are respected by their government.”

Read the rest.

Highlights from the U.S. National Transgender Health Summit

"Transgender people experience significant health disparities in this country. In fact, regardless of socioeconomic status, transgender people are the most medically underserved population in the U.S."
- JoAnne Keatley, Director of the CoE for Transgender Health and the lead conference organizer (pictured)

via AIDS.gov, by Jennie Anderson and Mindy Nichamin

What do empowerment, discrimination, data, and health have in common? They are several of the many themes we heard throughout the National Transgender Health Summit that took place in San Francisco earlier this month. The Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (CoE) organized this groundbreaking two-day Summit that brought together healthcare providers, health profession students, researchers, and other health leaders. In past posts we've discussed the disproportionate impact of the HIV epidemic on the transgender community, and so this Summit was an important opportunity for us to learn from and engage with experts on this topic. As the White House National HIV/AIDS Strategy states, "Some studies have found that as many as 30 percent of transgender individuals are HIV-positive. Yet, historically, efforts targeting this specific population have been minimal."

Read the rest.

Hey, Chicago POZ Guys of Color - REGAIN CONTROL of your healthcare

Project IN-CARE is a new program offered by AIDS Foundation of Chicago, Brothers Health Collective, Howard Brown Health Center, Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center and Test Positive Aware Network.

IN-CARE is about men supporting men in regaining control of their healthcare and their lives. This project is designed specifically to assist bisexual, gay/same-gender-loving and down low/discrete men of color who’ve recently tested positive for HIV or have been positive for some time but haven’t seen a doctor in at least 6 months.

IN-CARE participants are paired with a Peer Health Navigator - someone who is successfully managing their own health care and knows the resources available in Chicago as well as how to access them. Peer Health Navigators work with participants to help them access HIV medical care, as well as the knowledge needed to gain and maintain their health and many other resources they may need.

For further information please contact …

Test Positive Aware Network – Juan Mercado 773-989-9400 ext. 294

CORE Center – Kathy Jacobs-McLoyd 312-572-4633

Brothers Health Collective – Leveon Perkins 773-363-0055

Howard Brown Health Center – Julio Maldonado 773-388-1600

Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program Update

There are two important changes to Illinois ADAP that will benefit people with HIV who get their medications from either private insurance or Medicare. In addition, a third change may make it possible for people on ADAP to afford comprehensive health insurance under the new Illinois Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.

1. More help with co-pays and premiums if you get your HIV medications through your insurance. ACTION NEEDED: If you have private insurance and earn less than $54,450 a year, consider applying for ADAP.

• ADAP used to enroll only people whose private insurance required them to pay more than 20% of the cost of each prescription, or who had co-pays of more than $100. ADAP will now enroll anyone with private insurance and pay your out-of-pocket costs, including any deductibles and co-pays. Note that your private plan must be able to coordinate with the ADAP pharmacy. In addition, the insurance company cannot require prescriptions for more than a one-month supply of medication. (ADAP will not a fill a three-month supply.) In addition, you must meet the other ADAP eligibility requirements.

2. More help with co-pays and deductibles for people who get their HIV medications through a Part D Medicare Plan. ACTION NEEDED: If you have Medicare and your income is less than $54,450, consider applying for ADAP. You can get help paying for your medications.

• If you are on Medicare and your income is under $26,917, you are probably already getting help with your premiums and co-pays from either Social Security Extra Help or Illinois Cares Rx. Your Part D prescription drug premiums are being paid and you probably don’t spend more than about $6 for each HIV medication. ADAP can now help you with these small co-pays too. Every dollar is probably important to you, so enroll in ADAP and get help with those co-pays.

• If you are on Medicare and your income is over $26,917, but under the ADAP limit of $54,450, you probably couldn’t afford your HIV medications last year, and got them from ADAP. Effective January 1st, 2011, the Affordable Care Act (the 2010 health care reform bill) allows the money ADAP spends on your behalf on your HIV medications to count toward your out-of-pocket costs. What does this mean to you? This year, you can get your HIV medications from your Medicare Part D plan all year, and ADAP will pay your out-of-pocket costs for HIV medications. The money ADAP spends on your HIV medications will help you get out of the Part D “donut hole”. ADAP will continue to help with your co-pays for HIV medications once you are in the “catastrophic” phase of the Part D program. You only have to pay 5% toward your non-HIV medications.

• One caution: Some people on ADAP now never reach the donut hole for their non-HIV medications. That means they are paying 20% of the costs of their non-HIV medications all year long. With this change, they will reach the donut hole, and may have to pay 100% of the cost of their non-HIV drugs during the donut hole period.

• As with private insurance plans, your Medicare Part D plan must coordinate with the ADAP pharmacy in order for you to be able to take advantage of these changes.

3. New Health Insurance Option for People on ADAP.

• Have you been without insurance for six months or more? (ADAP or free medical care from a Ryan White clinic doesn’t count). If so, you may be eligible for the new Illinois Pre-Existing Insurance Plan (IPXP).

Another change that health care reform has already brought to Illinois is the establishment of a new insurance plan for people who are uninsured and unable to buy insurance on the private market. Premiums for this new policy range from $135 to $653 per month, depending on your age, where you live, and whether you are a smoker. Illinois CHIC will pay up to $500 toward your premiums and Illinois ADAP will also help with your co-pays and deductibles for your HIV medication. This is a tremendous opportunity for people on CHIC and ADAP to obtain comprehensive health insurance. More information is available here.

If you have questions, call Illinois ADAP at 800-825-3518 or visit the ADAP website. Note that as of February 7, the criteria listed on the ADAP application and website does not reflect the policies above, announced at a January 21, 2011 meeting of the ADAP Medical Issues Advisory Board.

Yes, it’s complicated! You can also get more information about any of these changes from the AIDS Legal Council of Chicago. Call toll-free from anywhere in Illinois, 866-506-3038.

Health Care Reform and LGBTs - The Big Picture

via The Notion, by Nancy Goldstein

Even in downscaled form, the Affordable Care Act may transform the Big Picture for LGBT people more radically than any other federal legislation in this last decade. I say this with no disrespect to the marriage equality movement and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. But not all LGBT people are ready, willing, or able to enlist in marriage or the military, whereas everyone needs medical care.

Read it all.

LGBTs - Vote NO on Health Care Repeal - Call Congress TODAY

via the National Coalition for LGBT Health

VOTE NO ON REPEAL OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

Fight for your right to a healthier community: tell your Representative to vote no on repealing health care reform.


"Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane."
- Martin Luther King, Jr., 1966

On Monday, January 17, we remember(ed) one of the most important civil and human rights champions of our time: Martin Luther King, Jr. As one of the most visible leaders of the modern civil rights movement, he was a prophetic voice speaking out for the equal and just treatment of all people.

Dr. King’s spirit is carried on by activists like you who share his belief in inherent human worth, a belief that takes us beyond asking for freedom from discrimination and to demanding the resources we need to live full and healthy lives. As Dr. King reminded us almost fifty years ago, access to health care is justice at its most basic. Its denial is injustice at its most base.

In direct opposition to Dr. King’s legacy, the House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 2, “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act,” on Wednesday, January 19. This bill will attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, last year’s historic law that extends access to health and health care to millions of people in America.In partnership with the National Black Justice Coalition and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the National Coalition for LGBT Health asks you to help keep Dr. King's dream alive.

Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard right now at (202) 224-3121 and tell them where you live. They’ll connect you with your Representative.

Tell them to vote no on repealing health care reform.

That's (202) 224-3121. CALL NOW.

Click here for an LGBT-focused analysis of the Affordable Care Act
Click here for fact sheets on nine priority areas of implementation

HHS Website on Consequences of Repealing Healthcare Reform

New House Leadership of the 112th Congress began their new session by announcing that their first order of business would be to repeal the Affordable Care Act of 2010 instead of focusing on their campaign pledges to address the economy and create jobs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has developed a website detailing the consequences of repealing the Act. . This website contains concrete data and evidence detailing what is at stake from a national and state perspective.

Check it out.

Illinois-specific info.

You can take action by contacting your elected officials and urging them to defend the Affordable Care Act of 2010 against attacks and claims that are detrimental to the public health of our nation. To find out whom your congressmen are, please visit:
http://whoismyrepresentative.com and enter your zip code. This website contains links to Congressmen’s websites, address, and direct phone number.

Alternatively, the following main switchboard numbers can transfer you to their office: Senate (2 representatives perstate): (202) 224-3121 House of Representatives (1 representative per local district): (202) 225-3121.

Senate Democrats vow to block health care repeal

via Associated Press

Top Senate Democrats are warning House Speaker-elect John Boehner they'll block any Republican effort to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.

Citing better Medicare prescription coverage and other changes in the new law, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his top lieutenants say the overhaul "is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal health care."

The letter says repeal would have "unintended consequences" for the part of the law that gradually closes the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap, as well as for other popular consumer benefits. Also signing the letter are Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Charles Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington.

A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Is Bad Health Policy

via Medical News, by Michael Smith

The military "don't ask, don't tell" policy for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members is not only a constitutional and legal issue -- it also has serious health implications, an epidemiologist claims.

The policy often means that sexually transmitted infections go undiagnosed and service members and their partners are untreated, Kenneth Katz, MD, of San Diego State University, wrote in a Perspective piece published online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

And messages aimed at preventing HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases -- and tailored for gay, lesbian, and bisexual service members -- are not transmitted, Katz argued.

"In very real ways," Katz wrote, the policy threatens the health of service members as well as the community at large, and may even have an impact on the ability of the service as a whole to respond to combat missions.

Katz cited the case of a gay serviceman who came to his municipal STD clinic in San Diego County complaining of rectal pain and discharge. The diagnosis was rectal gonorrhea, which was treated according to CDC guidelines with an intramuscular injection of 125 mg of ceftriaxone (Rocephin) along with one gram of oral azithromycin (Zithromax) for empirical treatment of chlamydia.
But, Katz noted, the man had had ready access -- for free -- to military clinics.

He said he chose the municipal clinic because he would have felt uncomfortable discussing his sexual behavior with a military doctor.

Katz reported that, in 2002, nearly one in 10 clients of a gay men's health clinic in San Diego were sailors on active duty, which is consistent with his own experience.

But there are an estimated 66,000 gays, lesbians, and bisexuals in the military, or about 2.2% of the total, he noted. "How many of them have no access to nonmilitary medical care?" Katz wrote. "How many simply don't seek it?"

Read the rest.

America, Love it or Leave It: 59 million have no health insurance

via Reuters

Nearly 59 million Americans went without health insurance coverage for at least part of 2010, many of them with conditions or diseases that needed treatment, federal health officials said on Tuesday.

They said 4 million more Americans went without insurance in the first part of 2010 than during the same time in 2008.

"Both adults and kids lost private coverage over the past decade," Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a news briefing.

The findings have implications for U.S. healthcare reform efforts. A bill passed in March promises to get health insurance coverage to 32 million Americans who currently lack coverage.

But Republicans who just took control of the House of Representatives last week have vowed to derail the new law by cutting off the funds for it, and some want to repeal it. Experts from both sides predict gridlock in Congress for the next two years in implementing healthcare reform's provisions.

Read the rest.

New Report Finds Rampant Health Care Discrimination Against Transgender Individuals

Talk about the need for cultural competency, a new study out today finds that transgender and gender non-conforming people face rampant discrimination in health care settings, are regularly denied needed care, and experience a range of health risks because they are transgender or gender non-conforming, according to a report of over 6,450 transgender and gender non-conforming people. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey: Report on Health and Health Care was released nationally today by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Key findings include:

* Nearly 1 in 5, 19%, reported being refused care outright, because they were transgender or gender non-conforming;

* Survey participants reported very high levels of postponing medical care when sick or injured due to discrimination and disrespect (28%);

* Harassment: 28% of respondents were subjected to harassment in medical settings;

* Significant lack of provider knowledge: 50% of the sample reported having to teach their medical providers about transgender care;

* Despite barriers, the majority have accessed some form of transition-related medical care; but only a minority has had any surgery, despite the fact that a strong majority stated wanting to have it someday;
* Respondents reported over four times the national average of HIV infection, 2.64% in our sample compared to 0.6% in the general population, with rates for transgender women at 3.76%, and with those who are unemployed (4.67%) or who have engaged in sex work (15.32%) even higher;

* Over a quarter of the respondents misused drugs or alcohol specifically to cope with the discrimination they faced due to their gender identity or expression;

* A staggering 41% of respondents reported attempting suicide compared to 1.6% of the general population.


Read the entire report here.

New health care law addresses LGBT needs

Within six months of the enactment of this law, we have put in place policies that many of us have fought our entire life for.

via Bay Area Reporter, by Matt Baume

Six months after the passage of health care reform, big changes are under way for the ways that LGBTs access health care. With lower costs and expanded protections on the horizon, the LGBT Community Center [San Francisco] hosted a forum Monday to explain the ways that health care has already changed and may shift in the months and years ahead.

Hosted by Dan Gould, director of the California LGBT Health and Human Services Network, a program of the Equality California Institute, the discussion featured comments by Herb Schultz, California's regional director of the Department of Health and Human Services, and David Hansell, acting assistant secretary for the Administration for Children and Families.

Appointed earlier this year by President Barack Obama, Schultz and Hansell are key to the administration's efforts to address LGBT health issues.

Provisions of the Affordable Care Act have already begun reform private insurance and expand public programs, and are expected to continue doing so over the next decade.

Among the new measures is expanded eligibility for Medicaid, caps on out-of-pocket expenses, tax credits for small businesses, free prevention and wellness programs, and annual wellness consultations for Medicare recipients.

Behind the scenes, health organizations will improve data collection and will receive improved cultural sensitivity training.

The reforms also eliminate lifetime limits on heath coverage, and prohibit insurance companies from dropping customers when they become sick. These issues have disproportionately affected people with HIV.

Schultz recommended that people visit www.healthcare.gov to learn more about how their coverage and options may be changing.

The work of HHS isn't limited to just the implementation of the health care reform bill. Hansell pointed out that the department administers a broad range of services and protections, including the enforcement of Obama's recent directives that hospitals recognize advance care directives and enforce inclusive visitation policies.

Obama also asked HHS to make recommendations for addressing health care issues that affect the LGBT community. The department has convened a committee to gather recommendations from citizens and health organizations, and expects to issue those recommendations this fall.
Among the recommendations currently under investigation are guidelines for benefits that serve transgender individuals.

"ACF was not very LGBT-friendly in the previous administration," Hansell acknowledged. "Well, I can tell you, that has changed."

To that end, ACF has created new programs to serve LGBT adoptive parents, including outreach and grants for parent-to-parent support programs. In addition, the administration has directed programs for homeless youth to specifically serve LGBTs. It is also revising abstinence education – which it is required by Congress to provide – to more appropriately reflect the concerns of LGBT youth.

"Within six months of the enactment of this law, we have put in place policies that many of us have fought our entire life for," Schultz said. But, he added, their work is far from over.

"In order for us to be successful, we need the community to tell us the things that are important," he said.

Health Insurance and Same-Sex Couples

Looks like there's a new reason to join the marriage equality movement?

A new study out of UCLA is documenting the disparities in health care coverage for same-sex couples. Partnered gay men are less than half as likely (42 percent) as married heterosexual men to get employer-sponsored dependent coverage, and partnered lesbians have an even slimmer chance (28 percent) of getting dependent coverage compared to married heterosexual women. As a result of these much lower rates of employer-provided coverage, partnered lesbians and gay men are more than twice as likely to be uninsured as married heterosexuals.

Read the rest...

Follow your HAART... in 3 parts [conclusion]

Don’t worry, be happy (okay works too) 
by a fellow lifeluber - part 3 of 3
read part 1, read part 2

Sorting it out.

[I was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS at an interesting time. The year that followed was a year of personal change and exploration, and more importantly, a year that marked an important attitude shift from treatment providers. By 2010, the medical community had changed their position from “wait then medicate” to “medicate first” for anyone with CD4 levels of 350 or below. The decision made sense, but caused confusion for anyone who was recently diagnosed but had to decide on a treatment plan quickly, like me.

Now, before I could face down my HIV/AIDS and take a path toward being healthy, I had to decide on a medication sooner than I thought I would. It wasn’t easy, partially because I had been diagnosed during this time of change. I ran into many obstacles and blocks on my path toward making a decision. My level of education and awareness, combined with my young age and personal circumstances, created a personal atmosphere of slowly building pressure, until finally I realized I had just three options left: take the plunge and start on medication, go crazy, or face declining health.

This story is not so much about how I decided on a medication, but more about how I learned to let go and stop worrying about the whole thing. I dedicate it to the kind people at Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN) and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, and to my wonderful boyfriend, who helped make its telling and in part, its resolution, possible.]

Here's to the next 30 years.

I have been on medication for over a month now, and although I cannot say it has been easy, I can say that it has been manageable. I realized I was worrying way too much about HIV/AIDS and its different treatments before. Being resourceful, having a network of support, and picking up the HIV Drug Guide, published by the Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN), will be extremely helpful to anyone who is newly diagnosed.

If you don’t have medical insurance, or can’t get in to see a doctor for some other reason, don’t fret just because you aren’t going to (Chicago's)Northwestern Hospital or North Star Clinic or any of the so-called HIV treatment “superstars.” It took me a long time to recognize that state-supported clinics and physician’s assistants can be just as good as a bona fide M.D., or better. There are a many good facilities with many caring providers out there.

Don’t give up. 

Lastly, an interesting side-note regarding Illinois’ recent controversial decision to make the requirements for approval in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) a six-month application process rather than a yearly one. I spoke to Illinois ADAP Administrator Jeff Maras, who explained to me that by making the application process every six months rather than yearly, Illinois was simply coming into compliance with the regulations other federally-funded states have been following for several years.

If you would like to know more about how the program works in your area, click here and contact the administrator for your state.

Thanks for listening, all. I wish you health and luck. Here’s to the next 30 years. 

YES! Obama Signs Hospital Visitation Memorandum

via Advocate

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum Thursday requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have nonfamily visitors and allowing their partners medical power of attorney.

Read the rest.

Playing doctor no fun without insurance

Doctor, Doctor

Despite gains in society, gays and lesbians still face challenges receiving equal treatment in health care

via Metro Weekly, by Sean Bugg

Back in the very early 1990s, not long after college and in the depths of my great post-collegiate career crisis — fancy speak for ''educated and unemployed'' — I found myself without health insurance. This seemed no big deal for a young, healthy, adult male.

Then my wisdom tooth decided to make a move, becoming impacted, painful and in desperate need of removal. After many calls to dentists' offices to no avail, a friend told me to call a local dental school where in exchange for being a student's lesson I could have the tooth removed for $50.

No health insurance meaning no choice, that's what I did.

I got a Novocain injection — you need insurance to get the good stuff — and an explanation that my deeply rooted tooth would need to be cut apart in my jaw in order to be taken out.

It was about the time that I began flailing my arms wildly and choking out guttural screams from my wedged-open mouth — causing the student to remove his little power saw and the supervising dentist to ask, ''Are you feeling something?'' — that I formed some particularly strong ideas about our nation's health care system.

Now, it may not be entirely fair to base my opinions on health care reform solely on a painful, uninsured medical experience. But, even as brief as the time was, living without health insurance and suddenly needing it is rather enlightening.

The same goes for being openly gay and getting health care.

I've had a doctor go chilly on me when I mentioned my orientation. I've had friends who've experienced the same. I had a friend, since passed, who ended up in the farthest ends of the hospital ward with a big biohazard sign stuck to the door of his room.

I've watched as HIV-prevention science ignored sex between men, focusing studies on the efficacy of microbicides solely on vaginal use. I've seen condoms for receptive sexual partners instantly branded ''female condoms,'' and nearly 20 years pass before they became an openly used part of HIV prevention for gay men. I've listened as lesbian friends tell of their own unease dealing with physicians who essentially treat them as embryo-delivery systems rather than women in need of specific care and treatment based on their individual lives.

When Leslie Calman, executive director of the Mautner Project, says that lesbians and gay men are ''truly invisible in much of the research system,'' she's not exaggerating. (See interview, p. 24.) In many very real, very damaging ways, we simply do not count.

While we're fortunate to live in an area with a significant supply of LGBT-friendly physicians — and, even better, many LGBT physicians and medical professionals — not everyone has the means to access them. Those are the sorts of gaps that Mautner, along with a number of other LGBT-focused health organizations, has worked to fill.

As I write this, the health care reform drama on Capitol Hill continues. If it passes, as I hope it does, it will be an important step in reconfiguring how our nation approaches health care. But, particularly for our own LGBT community, many steps remain. It's up to us to advocate for our equal treatment in research and care.

And it's up to those of us who have access to health care to demand treatment with respect, to help set the standard for others who may not be as ready or able to speak out for themselves.

Source

Aging issues are tougher for LGBTs

via CNN, by Tom Watkins

Excerpt:

Though aging is tough for everyone, it tends to be tougher for people who are gay, according to a report presented Wednesday at the annual conference of the National Council on Aging and the American Society on Aging in Chicago, Illinois.

According to the report, Improving the Lives of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Older Adults, issues that disproportionately affect LGBT older adults include stigma, isolation and unequal treatment. Together, they translate into their being poorer and sicker and having fewer opportunities for social and community engagement than do their heterosexual peers, according to the report.

Many older LGBTs' financial woes can be traced to the fact that discrimination was legal during their working lives, which often meant thinner paychecks, limited access to health care, fewer chances to build pensions and smaller Social Security payments, the report said.

For example, lesbian couples' Social Security benefits are typically 31.5 percent smaller and gay couples' benefits are 17.8 percent smaller than are those of heterosexual couples, the report said, citing a 2009 study.

Family members provide about 80 percent of long-term care in the United States, but that's not the case with LGBT elders, since they are more likely to be single, childless and estranged from their biological families, said the report.

Read the whole thing.

Most appalling, and vindicating, story of the day - Insurer targeted HIV patients to drop coverage

via Reuters

In May, 2002, Jerome Mitchell, a 17-year old college freshman from rural South Carolina, learned he had contracted HIV. The news, of course, was devastating, but Mitchell believed that he had one thing going for him: On his own initiative, in anticipation of his first year in college, he had purchased his own health insurance.

Shortly after his diagnosis, however, his insurance company, Fortis, revoked his policy. Mitchell was told that without further treatment his HIV would become full-blown AIDS within a year or two and he would most likely die within two years after that.

So he hired an attorney -- not because he wanted to sue anyone; on the contrary, the shy African-American teenager expected his insurance was canceled by mistake and would be reinstated once he set the company straight.

But Fortis, now known as Assurant Health, ignored his attorney's letters, as they had earlier inquiries from a case worker at a local clinic who was helping him. So Mitchell sued.

In 2004, a jury in Florence County, South Carolina, ordered Assurant Health, part of Assurant Inc, to pay Mitchell $15 million for wrongly revoking his heath insurance policy.

In September 2009, the South Carolina Supreme Court upheld the lower court's verdict, although the court reduced the amount to be paid him to $10 million.

By winning the verdict against Fortis, Mitchell not only obtained a measure of justice for himself; he also helped expose wrongdoing on the part of Fortis that could have repercussions for the entire health insurance industry.

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