We are at a point where we have all the tools we need to end the HIV epidemic, and the time has come to pass common-sense legislation to put those tools to use with a commitment to racial justice and health equity. In order for us to end the epidemic, we must work together to pass House Bill 5417, legislation that would enable us to employ the public health tools we already possess in order to safeguard the health and well-being of our communities by promoting testing and linkage to care (what we call “TLC”). We ask you to write your state senator and urge them to support HB 5417 for passage during the upcoming veto session.
HIV affects all genders, ages, and racial/ethnic groups, but some communities are impacted disproportionately. Black and Latiné men who have sex with men, Black cisgender women, people of transgender experience, people who use drugs, people in reentry across the criminal legal system, and people experiencing homelessness are far more likely to receive an HIV diagnosis in their lifetimes than the population at large. Ending the HIV epidemic in Illinois is a racial justice issue and a public health access and equity issue that we can and must remedy through policy and government action. Sponsored by State Senator Lakesia Collins, HB 5417, the Connection to HIV Testing and Linkage to Care (TLC) act, would provide for eight rapid start pilot sites to be established across Illinois – getting newly diagnosed people living with HIV connected to care within seven days of a positive test result or referral. The bill requires insurers and Medicaid to cover the cost of home testing kits for STIs, including HIV, without cost sharing, which can eliminate barriers like access to health care providers and the impacts of stigma on seeking testing and care. The bill further promotes information and education about HIV and STIs to people in county jails and their visitors, and connects people in jails to HIV testing, as mandated by the Illinois County Jails Act.
Spearheading advocacy for this bill is AIDS Foundation Chicago’s Senior Director of Policy and Advocacy Timothy Jackson. “As a person living with HIV for nearly fifteen years, I know that increasing access to HIV testing and linking people to care are critical to ending the HIV epidemic in Illinois,” Jackson says. “HIV prevention and education in our county jails, establishing Rapid Start for HIV treatment pilot sites across the state, and allowing people to test for HIV and STIs from the privacy of their homes are the policy solutions that will get us there."
Promoting testing, connecting people to care, and educating people about HIV care and prevention are critical components of our work to end the HIV epidemic. These are policies that will have tangible impacts, directly confront inequity in health care, and create a healthier Illinois for all. We urge you to write to your state senator here to ask them to support HB 5417 to pass during the upcoming veto session in November.
We are approaching an historic milestone in the fight against HIV in Illinois, the end of the epidemic – and we can get there with a little TLC.
