Increase Funding for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Service Integration

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Middle Class Economics: Enhancing the Lives of Americans Living with HIV/AIDS, and Fighting the HIV/AIDS Epidemic. The President's 2016 Budget is designed to bring middle class economics into the 21st Century. This Budget shows what we can do if we invest in America's future and commit to an economy that rewards hard work, generates rising incomes, and allows everyone to share in the prosperity of a growing America. It lays out a strategy to strengthen our middle class and help America's hard-working families get ahead in a time of relentless economic and technological change. And it makes the critical investments needed to accelerate and sustain economic growth in the long run, including in research, education, training, and infrastructure. These proposals will help working families feel more secure with paychecks that go further, help American workers upgrade their skills so they can compete for higher-paying jobs, and help create the conditions for our businesses to keep generating good new jobs for our workers to fill, while also fulfilling our most basic responsibility to keep Americans safe. We will make these investments, and end the harmful spending cuts known as sequestration, by cutting inefficient spending and reforming our broken tax code to make sure everyone pays their fair share. We can do all this while also putting our Nation on a more sustainable fiscal path. The Budget achieves about $1.8 trillion in deficit reduction, primarily from reforms to health programs, our tax code, and immigration. *****************************************

The Budget advances the President's commitment to reaching an AIDS-free generation in the U.S. and around the world by: Continuing to Support the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) and Expanding Access to HIV/AIDS Treatment, Care, and Prevention. The Budget expands access to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities and supports the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy to reduce HIV incidence; increase access to care and optimize health outcomes for people living with HIV; and reduce HIV-related health disparities.

By providing resources for Affordable Care Act implementation, the Budget will support increased health coverage for thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS and expand access to HIV testing for millions of Americans. The Budget makes smarter investments by prioritizing HIV/AIDS resources within high-burden communities and among high-risk groups, including gay and bisexual men, African Americans and Latino Americans. Compared to 2015, the Budget increases domestic discretionary Health and Human Services (HHS) HIV/AIDS by $118 million, including a doubling of funds for the Office of Women's Health. Overall, total U.S. Government-wide spending on HIV/AIDS increases by nearly $1 billion from $30.7 billion in FY15 to $31.6 billion in FY16. Supporting the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. The Budget invests $2.3 billion in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to provide treatment and care completion services for people living with HIV, and includes $900 million for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program to ensure that people living with HIV have access to life-saving antiretroviral (ARV) treatments. By helping people living with HIV remain in care and on their medications, the Ryan White program plays a critical role in preventing the spread of the HIV epidemic, as recent research has shown that ARV treatment reduces HIV transmission by 96 percent. 1 THE PRESIDENT’S BUDGET FISCAL YEAR 2016 Increasing Funding for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Service Integration. The Budget invests $799 million, an increase of $12.6 million, for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to continue implementing the goals of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy by preventing HIV/AIDS among high-risk communities using evidence-based interventions. The increase will be directed to those most at risk for acquiring HIV including youth, high risk HIV negative persons, and persons at risk for transmitting HIV, particularly those not engaged in care. CDC will continue to align prevention activities with the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and to promote high-impact prevention by focusing resources on effective, scalable, and sustainable prevention strategies along the HIV continuum of care for persons living with HIV and populations at highest risk for HIV. Part of the increase will support efforts to better link persons diagnosed and living with HIV to appropriate care and examine how new biomedical interventions are being used. Additionally, investments will be used to improve HIV prevention activities with school-aged youth. The Budget dedicates approximately $2.5 million to support States in developing integrated HIV plans to include prevention, care and treatment, and other supportive services such as substance abuse treatment and housing. This effort will help ensure that State and local health departments develop systems of prevention, care and treatment that are responsive to the needs of persons at risk for HIV infection and persons living with HIV, while also continuing the Administration's commitment to streamlining and reducing reporting burden. The Budget also doubles funding for viral hepatitis to prevent deaths due to viral hepatitis, reduce hepatitis C among young people, and reduce mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B. Supporting Housing Assistance for People Living with HIV/AIDS. The Budget provides $332 million for Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program to address housing needs among people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. The program provides States and localities with the resources to create comprehensive strategies for providing housing assistance that gives patients the stability needed for effective treatment. In partnership with Federal agencies through the HIV Care Continuum, HUD is working to improve outcomes that promote greater achievements in viral suppression through the coordination and alignment of housing support with medical care. The Administration is also proposing legislative reforms that would update HOPWA's grant formula to distribute funds based on more robust CDC data on persons living with HIV, rather than the cumulative number of HIV cases. Supporting Research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). To address the critical AIDS research priorities, the Budget requests $3.1 billion for trans-NIH AIDS research, an increase of $100 million above the FY 2015 level. The Budget request reflects several shifts of funds to address the many new and exciting scientific opportunities in AIDS research, including etiology and pathogenesis that provides the underlying foundation for all HIV research; development of vaccines and microbicides; and new and innovative approaches for research toward a cure. Increasing Support for Our Veterans Living with HIV/AIDS. The Budget includes $1.15 billion within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), including a $62 million increase for medical care, to ensure that veterans living with HIV/AIDS receive high quality, comprehensive clinical care, including diagnosis of their infection and timely linkage to medical care. Additionally, VA promotes evidence based HIV prevention services and is implementing its plan to meet the goals outlined in the President's National HIV/AIDS Strategy. 2