February 2, 2010

Obama’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2011 Includes Uptick in AIDS Spending

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for upcoming fiscal year (FY2011) includes relatively modest increases for domestic and global HIV/AIDS spending.

The proposal includes a nearly 4 percent ($31 million) increase for HIV prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a 1.7 percent increase ($39 million) to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, which includes a $20 million increase to AIDS drug assistance programs; a 3.3 percent increase ($1 billion) for medical research at the National Institutes of Health; and a 1.5 percent increase ($5 million) to the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program.

Globally, the budget proposes a 2.6 percent increase to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which provides treatment and support for HIV-positive people in developing countries.

Here are some responses to the FY2011 budget from the HIV/AIDS community.

Carl Schmid, deputy executive director of The AIDS Institute
“With significant cuts to state and local budgets, and the growing number of new infections and people needing lifesaving treatment and services, we are disappointed in the level of spending proposed by the president.”

Kenneth Mayer, co-chair of the Center for Global Health Policy’s Scientific Advisory Committee
“PEPFAR has been a forceful engine driving down AIDS mortality, heading off new infection and extending lifesaving drugs to millions of HIV patients. Unfortunately, this budget could imperil the fragile gains made over the last decade in treating HIV. It could also force a Sophie’s Choice between prevention and treatment.”

David Ernesto Munar, vice president of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago
“In the coming months, the White House will finalize a national AIDS strategy which, under the terms of this budget, will be hard pressed to meet its stated goals of fewer HIV transmissions, more people receiving HIV-related case services and less HIV-related inequality.”

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Previous Comments:

Randy, WV, 2010-02-05 22:42:12
As a newly diagnosed person with HIV, I am happy to receive help, but the only assistance I get is with meds and I worry each month about refills. Without health care reform or a larger budget package to help persons like me, what will we do. We are asked volunteer for free testing, but without support if we are poz., in which turns our lifes upside down. I ask why should one test just to be rejected in our society, some great world leaders of humanity.

Michael Perkins, Las Vegas,NV, 2010-02-04 21:00:41
In relation to HIV funding for those WITHOUT health coverage it will be another whoever gets in first gets the help kind of year. This is just for basic keeping alive stuff, meds, dr. visits, bloodwork. Some of the peripheral stuff can be budgeted down, but not basic medical needs for individuals. I voted for Obama, but this budget is a mess. We will be paying interest to China for decades!!!!!!!!