Expanding medicaid coverage for early treatment of HIV-positive persons and implications for poverty reduction / Gabriel Tourek

This paper offers Medicaid assistance for early HIV/AIDS treatment as a case
study in reform of the status quo administration of Federal and state health
systems and undertakes to provide a compelling case for early care to lowincome individuals with health needs. Since the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the
United States in the early 1980s, Medicaid (and Medicare) eligibility requirements restrict benefits to HIV-positive individuals who are completely incapacitated while access is deferred for those struggling in the interim before
severe disability. De facto, HIV-positive Medicaid recipients – low-income
sufferers and the majority of infected persons of color –experience shorter life
expectancies and lower qualities of life than their privately-insured counterparts. Interventions addressing HIV-related illness among poor populations
may also address an underlying cause of their low earnings, removing a
barrier to work and encouraging employment by improving physical and
emotional capacities as well as future life prospects.