Minnesota Update: MAP AIDSLine Funding in Abortion Limbo
Abortion politics have hijacked the possibility of any additional health and human services funding this legislative session. In an effort to block anti-choice advocate's efforts to force more restrictions on reproductive rights into Minnesota law by tacking the proposals onto the Senate's so-called omnibus budget bill, Senate leaders simply removed all health and human services funding provisions from the bill. The maneuver got the bill passed and off the Senate floor without anti-choice amendments being tacked on, but it also meant no new dollars to relieve some of the recent cuts in health care access. The proposal to restore funding for the MAP AIDSLine was among the many health and human services provisions that got pulled out of the Senate's omnibus budget bill. It's not unusual for abortion politics to become a factor at the end of the legislative session as lawmakers are trying to wrap up budget bills. It would be a serious disservice for the legislature to adjourn without restoring funding for health care cuts that have been made since 2003 and without restoring funding for the MAP AIDSLine. Stay tuned to your MAP Advocate to find out how the Senate finds a way to advance a health supplemental budget without further erosion of reproductive rights in Minnesota. Once that is done, HIV advocates will need to move into action fast to convince House and Senate budget conferees to support the Senate plan to back funding for the MAP AIDSLine. Without it, the currently available MAP AIDSLine service will be eliminated effective June 1.
Minnesota Update: Legislation to Save the MAP AIDSLine in Place in the Senate
The Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division included a recommendation that the Minnesota Department of Health fund an AIDS service and referral phone line. This is good news; it means the Senate is trying to restore funding to the Minnesota AIDS Project AIDSLine. MAP thanks Sen. Linda Berglin (DFL—Minneapolis), chair of the Health and Human Services Budget Division, for being a leader on honest HIV prevention in Minnesota. The House has not included a recommendation to restore funding to the MAP AIDSLine. What can you do? Continue calling, emailing, and mailing the Governor and your state House member about the MAP AIDSLine funding cut. Educate them about this vital HIV prevention service in Minnesota and ask them to support the Senate’s proposal.
Minnesota Update: Berglin Moves to Save State’s MAP AIDSLine
The Minnesota Department of Health is moving quickly to eliminate funding for the MAP AIDSLine. If MDH’s plan is put into action, the MAP AIDSLine – Minnesota’s 911 for HIV will stop offering HIV prevention services on May 31. Sen. Linda Berglin [DFL-Mpls] and others in the Minnesota Senate know how critical it is to keep the MAP AIDSLine. They also know MDH and Minnesota can afford the $135,000 a year it costs to keep the MAP AIDSLine in place. Sen. Berglin is advancing a proposal in the Senate budget bill that instructs MDH to make some different choices – to restore funding for the MAP AIDSLine and to look more closely at cutting some of its own administrative costs. How did we get here? Because of you. AIDS Action Day visits, phone calls, emails are all having an impact. But, the deal is not done. Keep contacting elected leaders and talking with friends and others. Let them know you value HIV prevention and want to keep a critical service like the MAP AIDSLine.
Minnesota Update: Senate Health Budget Recommendation Directs MDH to Fix Administration of Prevention Funds
On April 10, the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division released its budget recommendations. The proposal directs MDH [Minnesota Department of Health] to restore funding for the MAP AIDSLine by using federal HIV prevention dollars. The proposal also prohibits MDH from applying a cap on community HIV prevention contracts. MAP supports these provisions. The bill's lead author is Sen. Linda Berglin [DFL - Mpls]. These budget recommendations will be rolled into a Senate Supplemental Budget bill.
In March, MDH was informed by the CDC that $200,000 was being cut from Minnesota’s federal HIV prevention grant. MDH chose to apply the bulk of these cuts to community-based service reductions, including elimination of funding for the MAP AIDSLine and an across-the-board cut in HIV community prevention contracts. If enacted, the Senate proposal would require MDH to restore the approximately $135,000 in MAP AIDSLine funding. This might require reductions in MDH staff or administrative expenses. Last fall, MDH imposed a $130,000 cap on HIV prevention contracts. The design of the cap affected only one agency and one program -- MAP's PrideAlive program serving gay/bi men. It also resulted in MDH's inability to distribute approximately a quarter of a million dollars designated for prevention services targeting gay/bi men. How the dollars will be spent by the Department of Health remains unknown as of today.
Minnesota AIDS Project Holds AIDS Action Day Press Conference
On Monday, April 3, the Minnesota AIDS Project held a press conference about AIDS Action Day 2006. Below you can read Lorraine Teel's, MAP executive director, comments.
April 3, 2006
Good morning. My name is Lorraine Teel and I am the Executive Director of the Minnesota AIDS Project. Since it’s beginnings in 1983, the MN AIDS Project has been at the ready to respond to the needs of Minnesotans both at risk of HIV infection and those already living with this terrible disease. We have responded with clear and honest information regarding risk, up-to-the-minute referrals for those desperately wanting to know their status and with services that connect and keep individuals in medical care if they are indeed HIV-positive. And the MAP AIDSLine has been at the center of those services. Today public health officials at the State are abandoning their responsibilities to protect our public health. In one fell swoop they have eliminated funding for that lifeline service, that virtual 911 for AIDS available to all Minnesotans. They are recklessly cutting HIV prevention grants while at the same time not even spending all the dollars they have been awarded to keep these programs going.
On April 17th this year not only will all of our taxes come due, but the Health Department will also issue their annual report on new cases of HIV reported last year. And it will come as no surprise that there are more Minnesotans living with HIV in this State than ever before. Now, more than ever before is not the time to cut HIV prevention – it’s the time to increase that funding. Why are we here, now three years in a row, demanding more support for HIV prevention funding for the fastest growing community of those impacted by this disease – African born Minnesotans? Why are we here demanding re-instatement of the MAP AIDSLine? And why are we here demanding that the Health Department spend every dollar on the table they have for HIV prevention? We’re here because of an absence of leadership at the top.
All of the communities affected by HIV in Minnesota have stepped forward to concentrate on ending this epidemic in Minnesota. We have established prevention programs in the African American community, the gay men’s community, in the African born community and work to reach women of color throughout the state. In the meantime, each of these programs is struggling to first keep the funding level with what they’ve received in the past while at the same time being asked to do more. Now we’ve learned late last Friday that the Health Department plans on cutting these grants while their office sits back and watches the carefully crafted HIV prevention in the system suffer. We are here today to not only ask the legislature to support efforts to keep these programs stable and able to continue making a difference – we are here demanding that our public health officials do the same.
We know that HIV prevention works. Plain and simple. We have not seen alarming increases in HIV infections in this state despite more people living with this communicable disease. Why? Because we have focused on prevention and will continue to do so. But the state has a role in that work and we are here to hold the state accountable. If we let up now, we will only pay more later – and we will pay a heavy cost. In human lives and medical expenses. Let’s put our dollars where they do make a difference – in HIV prevention.
Minnesota Update: MAP AIDSLine Bill Introduced to Restore Funding
This week Sen.Scott Dibble (D-MPLS) and Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelliher (D-MPLS) proposed legislation to restore funding for the MAP AIDSLine. The bill number in the Senate is SF 3487 and the bill number in the House is HF 3486. This legislation would “Appropriate money to the commissioner of health to fund a community based nonprofit organization HIV information and referral service.” Lorraine Teel, MAP executive director, testified today in the Senate Health and Human Services Budget Division on behalf of this bill. Stay tuned to the MAP Advocate for more updates.
Read Lorraine Teel's Testimony:
March 30, 2006
Good morning. My name is Lorraine Teel and I am the Executive Director of the Minnesota AIDS Project. Since it’s beginnings in 1983, the MN AIDS Project has been the one call anyone in the state can make when they are concerned about HIV. Early in its development, MAP established an AIDSLine to address those concerns. Whether a call comes from a concerned parent, an adult unsure of what does and doesn’t constitute risk, Minnesotans have come to rely on the AIDSLine as their virtual “911 for AIDS”. I deliberately chose to use the 911 metaphor rather than 411. Yes, the AIDSLine does answer general questions about HIV for the public – the 411 if you will, but more importantly the AIDSLine serves as that 911 service Minnesotans expect when they have experienced an unsafe sexual contact, don’t know the difference between all the various types of HIV tests available or aren’t sure how to talk to their partner, their children or their friends about HIV risk.
These calls come from every corner of the state. These callers are often too nervous, too embarrassed and too fearful to seek out help from their medical provider. Perhaps they’ve tried surfing the web only to find contradictory information or advise. And perhaps most troubling, many of our callers have contacted the national AIDS hotline only to receive conflicting information or information they sense to not be accurate. An internationally based company that also processes all the Medicare billings and manages student loan repayments now manages the national AIDS hotline. With such a widely based portfolio is it any wonder that when someone from Brainerd calls about an HIV test and where he might find an appropriate test site there is little information on the other end?
The MAP AIDSLine maintains the most current and up-to-date resource guide on HIV and HIV-related services anywhere in the State. When Paulette Korsmo’s son Brent was unclear about his HIV risk and didn’t know where to turn he called the MAP AIDSLine. They helped him assess his risk, helped him access testing and when it turned out he was HIV-positive, connected him to care. Paulette contacted us and told us, and I quote, “I know how much the MAP AIDSLine helped Brent. Without being able to make that call, Brent may not have survived.” There are thousands of other stories I can tell you just like this Willmar family’s.
Finally, let me counter what perhaps you’ll hear about the MAP AIDSline. We are much more than a “hotline”. The MAP AIDSLine is available to do more than provide basic information. We are there for individuals in crisis, those who have nowhere else to turn, and yes those at greatest risk for HIV. We are the ones that married men engaging in high-risk behavior outside of their marriage turn to for information. We are the ones that the highly closeted gay African turns to for life-saving guidance about his level of risk. The MAP AIDSLine is there to answer sexual risk questions for the young paraplegic man with no other site to turn to with his specific questions about behavioral risk.
With more Minnesotans living with HIV than ever before, the need for the MAP AIDSline is even greater. Without this most basic service, this lifeline to care and this very backbone of the HIV continuum in the State, I am afraid that in the future we will only have to recreate this vital service if it is eliminated. HIV risk is not going away – it is greater than ever and the MAP AIDSline stands ready to meet that challenge.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2006
Statewide Resource for General HIV Education and Awareness Cut
Minnesota Department of Health Eliminates Funding for MAP AIDSLine
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has eliminated funding for Minnesota AIDS Project AIDSLine, a statewide HIV information and referral resource. As a result, Minnesota’s “911 for AIDS” service will need to suspend operation on May 31, 2006.
“The MAP AIDSLine is a service for every Minnesotan in every corner of the state,” said Lorraine Teel, MAP executive director. “Whether you have a basic question about HIV transmission, you know someone who is living with HIV and are trying to help them find services, or you’ve had a high-risk experience and are wondering about testing, the MAP AIDSLine has been the place Minnesotan’s could to turn to from the very beginning of this epidemic.”
Currently MAP AIDSLine provides testing referrals statewide, assists family members in understanding the risks of transmission and serves as a primary connection for newly diagnosed individuals. Operating through a statewide, toll-free phone service and a Web site, in 2005 the MAP AIDSLine connected 20,000 Minnesotan’s to the information they needed.
One recent caller was a woman from Greater Minnesota who was rekindling a romance with her former boyfriend, who as it turns out is HIV-positive. She knew very little about HIV, most importantly knew little about how to protect herself from HIV, what to expect from a relationship with an HIV-positive person and also how to think about disclosure to family and friends. It was the MAP AIDSLine that answered her questions and got her the information she needed to find local services – both for herself and her boyfriend.
MDH decided to eliminate the MAP AIDSLine service after learning about reductions in HIV prevention in the funding it receives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sen. Scott Dibble [D-Mpls] and Rep. Margaret Anderson-Kelliher [D-Mpls] will be introducing legislation to restore funding for this crucial statewide public health service.
“The MAP AIDSLine is known throughout the state for providing thorough, accurate and useful HIV information and it’s the most recognized HIV service in the State,” says Rep. Anderson-Kelliher. “Minnesota can afford the $135,000 to keep this valuable resource in our HIV prevention toolkit.”
State health officials propose that future inquiries be directed to the National HIV/STD Hotline.
”When you look at what the CDC has been doing lately to confuse the facts about HIV, referring people to a national hotline simply is not good enough for Minnesota,” says Sen. Dibble. “As a state, we need to make a commitment to providing a sound public health resource that people can trust.”
Minnesota AIDS Project has been leading the fight against HIV in Minnesota since 1983 through advocacy, education and service. For more information visit www.mnaidsproject.org.
Statewide Resource for General HIV Education and Awareness Cut
Minnesota Department of Health Eliminates Funding for MAP AIDSLine
The federal government may want to do less to stop HIV, but Minnesota expects more. $135,000 will restore the AIDSLine.
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