Facing a Fiscal Year 2025 state budget deficit nearing $900 million, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker delivered his annual State of the State and Budget address on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, before a joint session of the Illinois General Assembly. With a “bright future and opportunities ahead,” Governor Pritzker outlined his $52.7 billion Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget that includes substantial investments in early childhood education, the creation of a state child tax credit, and the elimination of $4 billion in medical debt for over 1 million Illinoisans over the next four years.
While AIDS Foundation Chicago (AFC) is supportive of many of the provisions outlined in Governor Pritzker’s proposed budget, we are disappointed to learn that there will not be any new state funds geared towards ending the HIV epidemic in Illinois. The Governor’s FY25 budget flat-funds most HIV-related programs when compared to FY24. Of note, this includes flat funding of the HIV Lump Sum – the state’s largest funding allocation for HIV testing, education, treatment, and prevention – which has not seen an increase in funding in the past three fiscal years. The lack of increased funding acts as a barrier to acknowledging and correcting the racial health disparities experienced by people living with and vulnerable to HIV, including the Black, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by HIV.
To address that inequity, AFC is proud to partner with State Representative Hoan Huynh (D-Chicago) and State Senator Mike Simmons (D-Chicago) on HB5667 and SB3809, legislation that will increase funding to the HIV Lump Sum by $2 million while also providing an additional $2.5 million in new state funding to develop a statewide Rapid Start for HIV Treatment Pilot program. In addition, AFC continues to advocate for fully funding the African American HIV/AIDS Response Fund and ensure timely disbursement to intended Black-led community-based HIV organizations. Additionally, AFC is proud to team with State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) and State Senator Lakesia Collins (D-Chicago) on HB5417 and SB3711, the HIV Testing and Linkage to Care (TLC) Act, that includes reforms to increase access to HIV testing and linkage to care. Finally, AFC fully supports Governor Pritzker’s Healthcare Consumer Access and Protection Act that seeks to improve health insurance plans by banning short-term limited duration “junk” plans, step therapy, and prior authorization for in-patient adult and children’s mental health care, among other reforms.
The initiatives laid out above are essential pieces of our comprehensive 2024 state legislative agenda that addresses racial health equity, health insurance and prescription drug reform, harm reduction, immigrant healthcare access, ending homelessness, and expanded funding for HIV prevention, testing and linkage to care. Without question, AFC is committed to fulfilling the goals and priorities of the Getting to Zero Illinois (GTZ-IL) plan to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.
For nearly forty years, AFC has and continues to lead the fight for HIV prevention and treatment services across Illinois. With community as our North Star, we remain committed to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities while amplifying the voices, stories and lived experiences of people living with and vulnerable to HIV.
AFC’s continued advocacy is rooted in a clear understanding that we cannot and do not do this work alone. To that end, AFC urges advocates from across Illinois to participate in this year’s Virtual HIV Advocacy Day that will be held Wednesday, April 10, 2024! Please join our Mobile Action Network to receive the latest updates on how you can use your voice and advocacy to advance health equity for people living with and vulnerable to HIV. In our fight to end the HIV epidemic in Illinois, we can reach those that have too often been pushed to the margins of our society—together.
