By Raven Feagins
McHenry, Illinois, has been Jamie Braxton's home since she was 8 years old. She loves the familiarity that living in a smaller city brings (McHenry has a population of 26,600). Jamie (pictured at left, in center) grew up in a two-parent household, regularly attended church and describes her upbringing as overall normal. In 1995, when she was 33 years old, she even began...
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Over the course of the last two weeks, Governor Bruce Rauner has deemed it necessary to veto three pieces of health care access and treatment legislation that would have had a positive and meaningful impact on the lives of people living with chronic illnesses, including HIV. The disappointment we feel in the Governor’s actions is tempered by the knowledge that all of these bills will...
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Today, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) is deeply disappointed that Gov. Bruce Rauner is playing political games with the lives of millions of Illinois residents who rely on the Medicaid program for access to their lifesaving medications, including people living with HIV.
Sign this petition now to urge legislators to override the governor’s veto
Gov. Rauner issued a veto...
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UPDATE 9/7/2018: The response we received from both departments failed to directly answer the questions presented to them, calling the request “overly time consuming and unduly burdensome”.
In response to this, AFC has made a request to the Illinois attorney general's Office of Public Access Counselor to determine whether DHS and HFS violated...
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By Ashley Brown
If you are on Medicaid in Illinois and have hepatitis C, be prepared to wait — potentially decades — for treatment. Illinois has a D-minus rating from the Hepatitis C State of Medicaid Access , the fifth lowest in the nation. Why such a low score? For one, Illinois Medicaid will only treat patients once they reach stage three or four of liver disease (the most...
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By Coleman Goode
On a dark May morning, I arrived at work before the sun was up fighting off nerves ahead of my first large Springfield Advocacy Day here at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). Our mission: deliver over 100 advocates to the state capitol to advocate for a positive budget with their state legislators. Our message was clear: they need to fully fund HIV programs and...
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SPRINGFIELD, June 1, 2018 – Each year, May 31 marks the end of the Spring Legislative Session in Illinois. The Illinois General Assembly adjourned on Thursday, after a productive and effective Spring Session, a stark contrast to the past years.
The House and Senate passed a bi-partisan budget that received near unanimous support across the aisle and across chambers. There are high...
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Do you use a copay card to help pay for name-brand HIV drugs for treatment or PrEP? If you do, watch out: your insurance company might have a new policy that doesn’t let your copay card (a.k.a. your copay assistance card) help you afford your medications.
We’re talking about “copay accumulators” — policies some insurance companies are using that could make your...
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By Kirstin Brockenborough
Coleman Goode is our new Community Organizer! You may have most recently seen him around Springfield serving as Chief of Staff for long-time HIV advocate State Representative Greg Harris. We’re getting into who Coleman is and how he’s tackling health inequalities.
You can get to know Coleman and his plans for turning up our advocacy...
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By Andrea Callow, Associate Director of Medicaid Initiatives at Families USA
HHS has issued its first two approvals for state Medicaid waivers that make a person's health coverage contingent on their work status. Kentucky and Indiana are the first states to get approval for waivers that tie coverage to work. Other states that are seeking approval for similar waivers include New Hampshire,...
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