MD Groups Host Health Insurance Events for Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day – Public News Service

February 7 marks National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, and Maryland health-care advocates see it as an opportunity to provide health-care options for people who are uninsured.

The state-run insurance exchange Maryland Health Connection has extended open enrollment through February 28. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation and Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition are jointly hosting events over the next week for uninsured residents of Baltimore and Prince George’s County.

Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, said for people with HIV/AIDS, having insurance is critical to afford medications.

“What’s really important to know is that all of our plans cover prescription drug costs, and so that’s very important,” said Eberle. “If you’re looking at having to buy drugs, or covered drugs that are very expensive, you want to make sure that you have health insurance that will cover that.”

On Saturday, get free help with health-insurance enrollment from 9 am to 5 pm at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s Baltimore clinic, and on February 7, at the group’s Temple Hills Clinic from 10 am to 6 pm. There will also be HIV testing, music and giveaways at both events.

Seventy-one percent of the 33,000 Maryland residents living with HIV/AIDS are Black, according to 2019 data. Jeremy Myers, community mobilizer and activist of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said getting coverage can improve health outcomes for all Marylanders.

“As we come up on Black History Month,” said Myers, “I think it would definitely be on cue to mention how this affects not only the community at large, but the communities of color and poor communities. By getting people enrolled, I really think that will help with impacting how HIV and AIDS has affected our communities.”

More than 180,000 Maryland residents have enrolled in coverage through the state health insurance exchange for 2022 so far, an all-time high.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — Today marks World AIDS Day, observed internationally to remember those lost to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and raise awareness about the disease.

In one of Ohio’s most populous counties, health professionals are working to ensure people living with HIV have the services they need. Cuyahoga County’s “Ryan White HIV/AIDS Part A” program has provided health services to those who do not have adequate insurance or financial resources since 1996.

Zach Levar, grant supervisor for the Cuyahoga County Board of Health, said one silver lining of the pandemic was learning how providers could reach more people through telemedicine.

“Clients that may not have wanted care in person might have found it a little bit more convenient to FaceTime with their doctor and check in with them that way,” Levar explained. “Our clients have definitely appreciated it, we’ve heard anecdotally that different clients that may have been out of care are now linked to care because they’ve been able to access via telehealth.”

Twenty-one percent of Ohioans who have been diagnosed with HIV live in Cuyahoga County, according to state data.

Levar said in honor of World AIDS Day, the county Board of Health has launched its first newsletter dedicated to HIV-related news and resources. It also plans to launch a social media campaign to help fight the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.

Services the Ryan White program provides in the Greater Cleveland area include help applying for housing and benefits support, mental health resources, and group education for people recently diagnosed. Levar said the Board of Health has received two grants focused on HIV care and prevention, to help connect with at-risk residents.

“We’ve started working with the state to figure out who is not in care and trying to figure out ways to best reach those individuals,” Levar outlined. “Figure out what their barriers are, really meet them where they are, and get them engaged in care, so that they can achieve the best health outcomes for themselves.”

The two grants, totaling about $2 million, were awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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LANSING, Mich. – Organizers of a summit about sexual health will provide a safe space on Friday for young Michiganders to have open, honest and affirming conversations about HIV prevention and care.

More than 15,000 Michigan residents live with HIV, and the stigma associated with it often keeps people from getting tested and knowing their status.

Natasha Thomas, Genesee County program coordinator for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, said it’s important that young people are able to talk about HIV and sexual health.

“HIV is something that we should be aware of, it’s something that we should be educated about, but it’s not necessarily something that we should fear,” she said. “It’s not something that we should stigmatize.”

She said the “HIV and You(th) Summit” is geared toward folks ages 13 to 24 and adults who work with youths. It will feature workshops on knowing your own medical rights, what it means to live with HIV, medications for prevention and care – such sa PrEP and PEP – and laws and history surrounding HIV and the LGBTQ community.

Thomas added that it’s also important that conversations about prevention and care debunk myths about HIV and how it is transmitted. She said there are few spaces where young people can go to get up-to-date, medically accurate information about sexual health.

“A lot of young people then turn to their peers, or they turn to the internet,” she said, “where they then have to kind of weed through all of this information – some of it accurate, some of it not.”

Thomas said she hopes attendees will leave the summit with resources and services they can look to, on an ongoing basis. Health experts urge people who are sexually active to learn their HIV status through regular testing at a clinic, hospital or community health center.

Disclosure: Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues, LGBTQIA Issues, Reproductive Health, Youth Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A bill that went into effect over the weekend makes the first reforms to Missouri’s HIV criminalization laws since they were passed in the 1980s.

Among other measures related to prosecutors and police, the bill requires prosecutors to prove someone knowingly exposed someone else who contracted HIV before getting a felony conviction, and reduces the minimum sentence from 10 to three years.

Rico Bush, communications director at Empower Missouri, said research shows HIV criminalization laws do not reduce the spread of HIV, but they do increase stigma and discourage people from getting tested – if they worry knowing their status could leave them vulnerable to conviction.

“It actually was deterring from people getting tested and actually knowing their true status,” said Bush. “And then once you know your status, then you can get the help that’s needed. We really want people to be educated about how HIV is passed, and also to get rid of the stigma surrounding HIV.”

Bush said while there’s more to be done, these reforms are an important step. He added that Empower Missouri and other advocates for reducing the stigma around HIV are working to educate people about medications they can take to curb the spread.

More than 13,000 Missourians currently live with HIV. Bush added there also are disparities in enforcement of criminalization laws.

“Since 1990, we know that more than 100 people in Missouri have been convicted of, you know, an HIV crime,” said Bush. “And Black men account for half of HIV crime arrests and convictions in the state, of course, this despite being only 5.5% of the state population.”

A bill introduced in Congress would incentivize states to eliminate their HIV criminalization laws, the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act.

Earlier this year, Missouri became the third state to allow pharmacists to dispense HIV medication, like PrEP and PEP, without a prescription from a doctor.

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