Implications of the Affordable Care Act for People With HIV Infection and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program: What Does the Future Hold?
There are numerous aspects of the Affordable Care Act that will be important for people with HIV in the U.S., including consumer protections and private insurance reforms, establishment of health care marketplaces in every state, new benefit standards, Medicare fixes, prevention enhancements, expansion of Medicaid, and health system improvements. However, it is unlikely that these changes will address all the needs of people with HIV. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program will thus remain crucial for the provision of adequate health care to HIV-infected individuals, but it will need to change. Changes in the Ryan White Program’s role will depend largely on state decisions on Medicaid expansion and health care marketplaces. This article, published in the September/October issue of Topics in Antiviral Medicine, summarizes a presentation by Jennifer Kates of the Kaiser Family Foundation at the IAS–USA continuing education program held in New York, New York, in April 2013.