America Living With AIDS

of AIDS do not qualify, even if they
meet the low-income eligibility
requirements. This restriction renders
poor people with HIV disease who do
not have a clinical diagnosis of AIDS
virtually ineligible for the early intervention treatments and services that
can delay progression of HIV disease,
prevent opportunistic infections, and
limit numerous (and expensive) hospital visits.
The disability requirement for Medicaid should be eliminated for people
with HIV disease. Although the Commission has made this recommendation specific to people with HIV disease, it can and should lead to further
changes that will include people with
other serious chronic illnesses.
The Commission also recommends
that the income eligibility requirement
for Medicaid be increased for people
with HIV disease. Currently, an individual must actually be, or in some
states be at risk of becoming, extremely poor to meet the income eligibility
requirements for Medicaid. Many
people with HIV disease are not
impoverished but nevertheless do not
have the health insurance or independent means to pay for the health care
treatments and services they need.
Therefore, either they are forced to
rely on the already overburdened public hospital system for expensive inpatient care or they must spend themselves into poverty to qualify for
Medicaid. Once impoverished and
eligible for Medicaid, they become

dependent on many other welfare programs for such basic needs as food,
clothing, and shelter.
Eliminating the disability requirement at various income levels (including, in some instances, eliminating the
asset test) would expand the number
of people with HIV disease who would
be eligible for Medicaid.
Eliminating the disability requirement for people with HIV disease and
raising the current income eligibility to
100 percent of the federal poverty level
would expand Medicaid coverage to
include an estimated additional 6,800
low-income people with AIDS and
63,700 additional low-income people
with HIV infection. This option would
increase the total number of Medicaid
recipients by less than half
of one percent.
The overall estimated
Medicaid cost of this keep gett
option would be $345 mil- reoccurring infections, b
lion in FY 1991, and can't get Medicaid since.
would be split between the $800 a month from my jc
federal government ($176 have no health insuranc
million) and state govern- can't get any. I had to d
ments ($169 million), health benefits in order t(
This option would result my job.
in an increase in total
Medicaid expenditures of LORELEI ESTRADA
less than one percent. June 1991
If the income requirement were raised to 185
percent of the federal
poverty level, with applicable asset
tests, Medicaid would cover 91,000
people with HIV infection and 21,000
people with AIDS. The total cost for
Medicaid would be $660 million and

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