Midwest Support of HIV/AIDS Policies

Several important pieces of HIV/AIDS legislation were introduced in the U.S. Senate this year. Below is an explanation of four of those policies and a list of the Senators in the Midwest who have signed as supporters.

Early Treatment for HIV Act (ETHA) ETHA gives states the option of amending their Medicaid eligibility requirements to include predisabled low-income people living with HIV. Such a change would enable HIV-positive people who do not yet have AIDS to access life-saving Medicaid-provided care. As the requirements currenlty stand, a person's health must decline to the point of disability before qualifying for the care that would have prevented such disablity.

HIV Prevention Act of 2007 (HPA) The HIV Prevention Act would remove the current requirement that one-third of all prevention funding in the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) be used for abstinence-until-marriage programs.

Microbicides Development Act (MDA) The MDA of 2007 will help ensure that the U.S. government's commitment to microbicide research and development is increased substantially by coordinating and expanding resources for microbicide research and development activities at the NIH, CDC and USAID. Microbicides are products currently under development that a person could apply topically to prevent transmission of HIV and other infections.

Responsible Education About Life Act (REAL) The REAL Act would provide federal money to support comprehensive sex education in schools. If enacted, REAL would fund science-based, medically accurate, and age appropriate public health information about both abstinence and contraception.