Increase Urged in Government AIDS Efforts

The county, state and federal governments must find more humane, creative and economical ways of caring for the several hundred thousand people who are expected to develop AIDS and related health disorders in the next few years, a parade of witnesses told a private panel Monday.

During a daylong hearing in West Hollywood’s Plummer Park, representatives of more than 20 groups that work with victims of acquired immune deficiency syndrome said government, especially the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, must make greater efforts to provide care and support for patients outside hospitals.

A county official said the major stumbling block is that the federal and state governments largely reimburse local agencies for the cost of hospital care for AIDS patients but do not offer similar incentives for providing care outside hospitals.

“The issue comes down to one of reimbursement,” said Rob Saltzman, administrator of the Los Angeles County AIDS Program Office. Altogether, Saltzman said, the county this year will spend about $14.7 million in local, state and federal money on AIDS care and education.

The AIDS hearing was sponsored by the Los Angeles AIDS Hospice Committee, a private group founded largely by those who successfully opposed passage of Proposition 64 last fall. That initiative, sponsored by supporters of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche, would have required, among other steps, the quarantine of AIDS patients.

Among those who conducted the hearing on behalf of the hospice committee were Steve Schulte, mayor of West Hollywood; Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles), and Jackie Goldberg, a member of the Los Angeles school board.

In a statement read during the hearing, Michael Weinstein, coordinator of the hospice committee, called on government agencies to:

- Establish a medical voucher program to pay for in-home or nursing home care for patients suffering from AIDS or a group of less serious disorders known as AIDS related complex, or ARC.

- Require nursing and convalescent homes to accept patients with AIDS or ARC.

- Prohibit landlords from evicting tenants afflicted with AIDS or ARC.

- Hasten the processing of applications for government aid programs, such as Social Security disability benefits or food stamps and, if necessary, make interim payments until assistance is available.

“The major focus of federal and state funding has been research and education,” Weinstein said in his prepared testimony. “It is time now to place our emphasis on the people most directly affected by this disease and reassure the well that they will not be left to fend for themselves if they become sick.”

AIDS is a virus-related disease that attacks the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to a host of infections. It is most often transmitted through sexual contact, through the use of unsterilized needles to inject drugs or from mothers to unborn children. More than 30,000 AIDS cases have been reported in the United States, and about 2,500 have been reported in Los Angeles County.

Several of those who testified at Monday’s hearing said more attention must be paid to the special needs of blacks and Latinos with AIDS or ARC.