Report Finds Majority Of Ryan White Program Clients Are From Minority Communities

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 05 Sep 2008 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

A key Federal program in the fight against AIDS serves many of the poorest people with HIV/AIDS in America, according to a report released during the 2008 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Conference in Washington, D.C.

The Ryan White Program provides primary medical care and support services to more than half a million people living with HIV/AIDS. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

According to the 2008 Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Progress Report: The Power of Connections, people living with HIV/AIDS are poorer than the general population, and Ryan White Program clients are poorer still. Seventy-two percent of Ryan White Program clients have household incomes equal to or below the federal poverty level and only 11 percent have any private health insurance. Findings in the report summarize program data from 2006.

"Every day the Ryan White Program makes a huge difference in the lives of more than half-a-million Americans who would otherwise have no way of accessing life-saving care," said HRSA Administrator Elizabeth M. Duke. "This report documents how this program is prevailing against the nation's most challenging and longest-running epidemic."

The report shows that Ryan White Program programs are following the demographics of the disease:

- Of the 72 percent of Ryan White Program clients from minority communities, 49 percent are African American and 21 percent are Hispanic;
- A third (33 percent) of all Ryan White Program clients are women; and
- Two percent are over the age of 65 and six percent are under age 25.

Since fiscal year 2001, the Bush administration has spent $15 billion in Ryan White Program funds to help more than 500,000 individuals each year access life-sustaining care and services. President Bush has requested nearly $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2009, an increase of $1.1 million over FY 2008.

The Office of Minority Health