MAP Advocate
AIDS Advocacy Update
Vol. 8 No. 4
March 12, 2002
In this issue:
Contact your member of Congress to voice your opposition to the Bush Administration's push towards abstinence-only programs and reductions in HIV funding.
Tell them we can't afford to take the administration's turn back to a 1980's; inadequate funding and using HIV to play out the conservative social agenda were part of what got us into this problem!
Who to contact:
Sen. Paul Wellstone, senator@wellstone.senate.gov,
800-642-6041
Sen. Mark Dayton, http://dayton.senate.gov,
612-727-5220
First District Rep. Gutnecht, gil@mail.house.gov,
800-862-8632
Second District Rep. Kennedy, mark.kennedy@mail.house.gov,
800-453-9392
Third District Rep. Ramstad, mno3@mail.house.gov,
952-738-8200
Fourth District Rep. McCollum,
http://www.house.gov/mccollum/,
651-224-9191
Fifth District Rep. Sabo, martin.sabo.mail.house.gov,
612-664-8000
Sixth District Rep. Luther, bill.luther@mail.house.gov,
651-730-4949
Seventh District Rep. Peterson, collinpeterson@mail.house.gov,
218-253-4356
Eighth District Rep Oberstar, www.house.gov/oberstar,
218-727-7474
It's a session that's primarily been focused on budget cuts, ballparks and anti-terrorism. While MAP's workplace data privacy bill moved through a series of Senate committees, it hit resistance in the House where the Judiciary Committee chair chose not to give the bill a hearing. The bill would have addressed unwarranted disclosure and misuse of HIV and other medical information by employers.
While dead for this session, MAP plans to revive the same bill along with other medical data privacy protection initiatives in 2003. Advocates can spend the coming months learning more about the issues, and asking questions of those candidates who will be ringing your phones and knocking on your doors to ask for your vote.
No increases for HIV prevention or care, but the Bush Administration is pushing for a $135 million increase in abstinence-only until marriage programs. The lure of these dollars is leading some organizations to abandon proven risk-reduction strategies, condoms education and in some cases, the GLBT community for federally-funded abstinence-only until marriage programs.
Currently 700 programs around the country promote an abstinence-only message despite the fact that there is no scientific evidence to show that they work. In addition, the programs ignore one of the communities hardest hit by HIV and increased STD rates -- young gay and bisexual men. This is no time to be shifting money away from what we know works to something that's never been proven to work. See the Take Action column for more on what you can do.
Who knows best which drugs to use to treat your illness? Your doctor or bureaucrats? Under a provision of the omnibus budget-balancing bill approved by the state legislature, Department of Human Services staff will be able to overrule doctors in making decisions about which drugs Medicaid patients will be allowed to take.
The provisions allows DHS to create a list of preferred drugs in any class for Medicaid patients and gives them the authority to switch patients to the cheaper drug, regardless of effectiveness. The projected savings for this provision is small - $158,000 over the fiscal year. MAP will work with a coalition of other health care advocated to repeal this program in the next phase of the budget balancing process.
MAP will kick off a new series of community empowerment forums on Wednesday, March 27 with a forum entitled Alcohol, Drugs and HIV: More Than Meets the High at the Minneapolis Urban League. The forum is designed for both service providers and consumers and will address the many facets in the relationship between substance use and HIV.
Other upcoming forums include New Directions in HIV Testing in late June, Prevention for Positives in July and Talking to Your Kids About Sex in October. For more details about the community empowerment forums call the MAP AIDSLine at 612-373-2437 or statewide at 800-248-2437.
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Last Updated:
Friday, March 30, 2007
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