California to Receive More Federal Funds to Fight AIDS

The new federal budget will boost funding in California for an array of AIDS-related programs--including emergency assistance, drug treatment and basic research--that have ballooned in size over the last several years.

Experts say that the increases, contained in a spending bill President Clinton signed into law Monday, reflect to a large extent the cost of progress: While the annual rate of new AIDS cases and AIDS-related deaths in the United States has plunged, the number of people living with acquired immune deficiency syndrome is rising.

“We do well on AIDS funding,” said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research in Washington, “and it’s for an unfortunate reason--because we have a relatively high proportion of the nation’s AIDS needs.”

An unusual bipartisan consensus in Washington has driven funding for AIDS health services under the Ryan White Care Act to $1.59 billion nationwide for the 12 months that began Oct. 1. That’s 13% more than the year before and almost five times higher than the 1993 level.

The act is named for the teenager who won renown battling AIDS and community prejudice before he died in 1990. One of the law’s chief goals is to help poor people with AIDS obtain what would otherwise be prohibitively expensive drug treatments and other types of health care, bridging a gap in federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.

At the same time, federal money for AIDS research in the coming year will surpass $2 billion, roughly double the amount spent in 1993.

Last year, California received 14% to 24% of key portions of the federal Ryan White money, analysts say. California also gets a sizable slice of the federal research money--close to one out of every five dollars--according to the AIDS Policy Research Center at UC San Francisco. The state should wind up with similar amounts in the coming year.

More than 44,000 Californians have AIDS, according to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. That’s 15% of the nationwide total of 288,000. Also, the foundation estimates that the state accounts for about one of every five new HIV infections reported each year.

Although AIDS activists welcome the funding for research and treatment, some complain that the government is not doing enough to halt the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. The annual HIV prevention budget at the Centers for Disease Control is about $700 million.

“We’ve spent more on teaching our kids about the make-believe world of Pokemon than on teaching them about the real dangers of HIV,” said Daniel Zingale, executive director of AIDS Action in Washington. In a report card issued on the eve of Wednesday’s World AIDS Day, the activist group gave the government an F for prevention, an A- for research and a B for treatment.

Administration officials dispute that they have neglected prevention. And they note that this year the United States beefed up its global AIDS-fighting budget by $100 million to combat what President Clinton calls a worldwide health catastrophe.

In California, some of the largest chunks of new money will be channeled into basic research at major universities, including UCLA, USC, UC San Diego, Stanford and UC San Francisco.

Researchers are hot in pursuit of a vaccine. But Steve Morin, director of a policy research center at UC San Francisco, said AIDS investigators have racked up discoveries that help fight other diseases, such as cancer and hepatitis.

Federal AIDS spending singled out at least one Los Angeles program for a third year. A special $2-million appropriation added to the budget with help from senior Democratic lawmakers Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin and Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa will enable the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation to expand a residential and outpatient treatment program, said foundation President Michael Weinstein.

The funding is not surprising, considering that about 15,000 people in Los Angeles County have AIDS, health officials estimate, the second-highest total in the nation behind New York City.

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Living With AIDS

While the numbers of new AIDS cases and AIDS-related deaths have plummeted in recent years, the number of people living with AIDS--and requiring health services--has risen sharply. Federal spending for AIDS health services under the Ryan White Care Act--much of which goes to California--has ballooned.

*

New AIDS cases in California in 1993: 11,918

In 1998: 3,352

Californians living with AIDS in 1993: 14,550

In 1998: 41,655*

Funding for Ryan White Care Act in fiscal 1993: $364 million

In fiscal 2000: $1.59 billion

*

* As of October 1999, estimated figure is 44,000

Sources: White House Office of National AIDS Policy, San Francisco AIDS Foundation