With a theme of “Keep the Promise”, this year’s World AIDS Day on December 1, 2005 seeks to focus public attention on fulfilling commitments in the fight against HIV/AIDS, including government commitments. The Kaiser Family Foundation has tracked public concern about HIV/AIDS, as well as views on government spending and progress on HIV/AIDS, for over a decade. As part of this effort, this Public Opinion Spotlight presents new 2005 data on key trend questions in this area.
In general, the public recognizes HIV as a problem facing the country and is supportive of federal spending to fight the epidemic. However, a few recent trends indicate that their sense of urgency may be somewhat muted compared with what it has been at certain points in the past. This is perhaps not surprising given the ongoing war, recent natural disasters, and other problems facing the country, and we will continue to track these questions over time to determine whether these recent trends will continue, level off, or change direction.
In 2005, 16% of the public name HIV/AIDS as the most urgent health problem facing the nation, a share that declined dramatically between 1995 and 2002, but that has remained relatively stable since then. The public is more likely to say that the United States is making progress on the problem of HIV/AIDS in the country (41%) than losing ground (24%) or staying about the same (26%), although the share saying the U.S. is making progress declined somewhat between 2004 and 2005, while the share saying the problem is about the same reached its highest level since 1995.
The public is generally supportive of federal spending on HIV/AIDS, with the largest share (42%) saying the federal government spends too little money on HIV/AIDS, and one-third (33%) saying spending is about right; fewer than one in ten (9%) say the government spends too much on HIV/AIDS. Similarly, when asked about federal spending on AIDS compared with other health problems such as heart disease and cancer, the public is most likely to say spending on HIV/AIDS is about right (43%) comparatively, followed by 29% who say spending on HIV/AIDS is too low; only a small share (13%) say such spending is too high. On both of these questions, the share saying spending on HIV/AIDS is too low declined somewhat between 2004 and 2005.
In 2005, the public was fairly split about whether spending more money on HIV/AIDS prevention in the United States would lead to meaningful progress in slowing the epidemic (44%) or wouldn’t make much difference (48%). This is somewhat of a change from 2004, when a majority (57%) believed more spending on HIV/AIDS prevention would lead to meaningful progress, and about one-third (34%) believed it would not make much difference.
