Senator Tom Coburn M.D. (R-OK) announced at a press conference this morning his intention to add comprehensive opt-out HIV testing to the AIDS services packages provided by the Ryan White CARE Act, which is up for reauthorization as the Ryan White Care Act Reauthorization (S. 2823). The reauthorization awaits favorable treatment in the Senate.
The Ryan White Act has suffered in the past from inadequate funding in Southern states, which now make up the majority of AIDS cases in the United States. Coburn suggested that his reccomended opt-out (as opposed to opt-in testing that must be initiated by the patient) HIV testing will remove the discouraging stigma of testing and result in higher numbers of diagnoses and status recognitions.
Coburn did not, however, indicate where the extensive funding needed to provide comprehensive opt-out testing would be taken from. Advocates of Title X clinics worry that their own funding will be "donated" to the cause. This is a worrisome, but probable, outcome that would devastate such clinics that are already strapped for money as it is. With a rapidly increasing clientele and ever-rising pill costs, this funding cuts to these clinics in favor of opt-out testing could speed the demise of already ailing Title Xs.