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Global HIV/AIDS funding expanded to $50 billion

By Janette Rodrigues, writer/editor, AAPA News

President Bush has signed the Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, allocating $50 billion to the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other programs over the next 5 years. AAPA expressed support for the federal legislation that will help recruit and train 140,000 new health care workers and turn the emergency aid program into a long-term, sustainable one to curb the rising epidemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa and other parts of the world. The new funding may triple spending for the act, which was set to expire at the end of September.

Calling PEPFAR the largest commitment by any nation to combat a single disease in human history, Bush said the effort supports treatment for nearly 1.7 million people in Africa and tens of thousands more—from Asia to Eastern Europe. The new funding would dramatically boost HIV/AIDS programming aimed at women and girls; strengthen health care systems in countries hard hit by the virus; and authorize HIV/AIDS programs to include linkages to food and nutrition, education, and health care programs. The law was amended to overturn a requirement that one-third of prevention funds be spent on abstinence and fidelity programs. Of the funds allocated by the reauthorization act, $4 billion will go to fight tuberculosis, which is the leading cause of death among Africans living with HIV. An additional $5 billion was committed to fight malaria.

More unemployed, Hispanics, young adults are uninsured

By Janette Rodrigues

The CDC recently released two reports on health insurance coverage that provide a look at the country’s health care haves and have-nots. The “Health Insurance Coverage: Early Release of Estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2007” found that 14.5% of all people living in the United States (43.1 million) lacked coverage at the time of the survey. The number of uninsured children was 8.9%, or 6.5 million. The groups most likely not to have insurance were the unemployed, Hispanics, and younger adults. The number of children who lacked health insurance coverage had decreased from 9.9 million in 1997 to 6.6 million in 2007.

While the CDC considered the first study a look at nationwide trends, the second report, “State, Regional, and National Estimates of Health Insurance Coverage for People under 65 years of age: National Health Interview Survey, 2004-2006,” focused on coverage at the state and regional levels among the population not covered by Medicare. It was based on data collected from 240,000 people.

The regional snapshot of state differences in health insurance coverage found that the Southwest had the highest percentage of uninsured people younger than 65 years and that New England had the lowest percentage. The state with the highest rate of uninsured residents was Oklahoma, with more than 33% of the population uninsured. Hawaii and Massachusetts tied for the lowest percentage of uninsured residents at 9.5%. Nationally, 16.6% of the population younger than 65 years was uninsured during the period between 2004 and 2006, when data were collected.

Report urges immediate action on health workforce policy

By Christopher Doscher, publications director

“Out of Order, Out of Time: The State of the Nation’s Health Workforce,” a report released July 17 by the Association of Academic Health Centers, recommends that the state of the health care workforce in America be made a “priority domestic policy issue” by all public and private stakeholders. The report notes that a lack of “harmonization of policy within and across jurisdictions,” as well as challenges such as reimbursement, resources available for education and training of health care workers, and job dissatisfaction and financial struggles experienced by health care professionals, are among factors that contribute to shortages in the health professions.

AAPA was among the organizations and government agencies that participated in the report. PAs are cited as a profession that helps fill gaps left by physician shortages. AAPA’s development and support of a model scope of practice law is held up as a step toward addressing barriers created by a lack of national uniformity in scope of practice across the health professions. To read the full report, go to http://aahcdc.org/policy/AAHC_OutofTime_4WEB.pdf.

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