Congress Should Reauthorize AIDS Resources Law : Orange County has more than 3,000 cases of the disease and about 8,800 people with HIV. The Ryan White CARE Act would help pay for their services.

With the hopes for national health care reform lost this year, Congress should use what remains of the 1994 session to pass health-related legislation that addresses some of the most vulnerable groups in America. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act of 1990 (CARE Act) provides over $600 million in community-based health and social services for thousands of men, women and children living with AIDS and HIV. Congress should act now to reauthorize the CARE Act for a second five-year period, beginning in October, 1995.

With the rising cost of caring for the sick overwhelming state and local public health systems, the CARE Act was conceived as disaster relief for all 50 states and 12 local communities that were disproportionately affected by the epidemic. As is often the case with other forms of disaster relief, Congress temporarily set aside its partisan interests, passing the CARE Act by a nearly unanimous vote.

Four years later, the need for the CARE Act continues to grow. While gay and bisexual men--including men of color--continue to be disproportionately affected by the disease, the numbers of infected women, heterosexual men, injection drug users and youth are increasing at startling rates. Moreover, though the nation’s urban epicenters continue to experience the highest numbers and concentration of cases, HIV and AIDS are no longer unknown in suburban and rural areas.

Orange County has experienced its share, with more than 3,000 cases of AIDS, almost 2,000 deaths and an estimated 8,800 HIV-infected individuals. For the past two years we have received CARE Act funding. Unlike many other federal programs, the CARE Act provides for local control and rapid release of funds, low administrative overhead and insists on community input and grass-roots efforts.

Through its support of community-based health and social services, including preventive AIDS drugs and therapies, the CARE Act prevents unnecessary and costly hospitalizations. Its decentralized planning model recognizes that the HIV epidemic in the United States is really a combination of many local epidemics, each with its own unique face and service needs.

The CARE Act was named after Ryan White, a young boy from Indiana who, before his death, inspired us with his tremendous courage and determination in the face of ignorance and fear on the part of his schoolmates and neighbors. Today, Ryan White’s courage in the face of discrimination is experienced daily by thousands of gay and bisexual men and women and injection drug users who live with this disease and refuse to be silent or invisible. While the nation waits for truly meaningful reform of the nation’s health care system, Congress should act now to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act.

I just returned from Washington, where I shared with Orange County legislators how essential this funding is to their constituents. I hope and pray that politics and party lines can be put aside and we can see a bipartisan effort for the expedited reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act.