If Donald Trump truly wants to be a “friend to the gays,” as he pledged during his presidential campaign, he has a strange way of showing it.
Should Pence attempt to chip away at the Ryan White Care Act in his new position, it would have an enormous impact on HIV-positive individuals living in Chicago and Illinois—as well as the LGBTQ organizations that advocate for their care. The state received $88.5 million in Ryan White funding in 2014, the last year the program’s allotment was reported.
A resurgence in the virus would be a major about-face from recent years, as programs like the Ryan White Care Act have helped keep annual rates of HIV transmission relatively steady. There are between 38,000 and 40,000 new infections each year nationally, says David Ernesto Munar, CEO of the Howard Brown Health Center. Currently, 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States.
A national battle over the Ryan White Care Act in Congress could result in similar consequences.
Prior to the ACA, a majority of these individuals were virtually uninsurable due to preexisting condition clauses in private health plans. By eliminating the ability of insurers to discriminate against people living with HIV, the ACA offered this population unprecedented access to primary care, as well as medication, testing, and treatment. Without these options, HIV-positive individuals would be forced to rely on the Ryan White funding, which is itself in jeopardy under a Trump presidency.
