The Clinton Excuse wrote:
> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9xIuPPc3LovwGSJhMI6M5W
> dM1QwD9EAIBIO0
>
> JOHANNESBURG — Cuts in donor funding could cause an HIV "nightmare," the
> United Nations' AIDS agency chief warned Monday.
>
> Michel Sidibe appealed to government and private donors to keep
> investing in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, an
> international financing institution. He said that cuts in donations will
> decrease the availability of free or subsidized life-saving drugs to
> African patients.
>
> An estimated 94 percent of patients on anti-retroviral treatment in
> Africa count on external donor funds to provide their medications,
> Sidibe said.
>
> "If we stop now, if we reduce the financing, the people who are on
> treatment today ... we will transform their hope for universal access
> into a universal nightmare, because they will start dying," Sidibe told
> The Associated Press Monday.
I've been advocating cutting HIV/AIDS funding for years, especially in
the USA, since increased funding is counterproductive.
The way the system works now is that for every American newly diagnosed
with HIV, the local AIDS clinic gets a budget increase. More HIV
patients equals more funding, since more doctors, nurses, counselors,
pharmacists, and so on are needed to treat them. A decline in new HIV
cases would be catastrophic, and would lead to layoffs.
My proposal is to hold local health departments accountable for
controlling the spread of HIV. The best way to do this is to limit
their funding, if not cut it. Instead of rewarding them for more HIV
cases, make them use their existing budget to treat them, and keep this
budget the same each year. Their new incentive will be that they get to
keep the extra money if the number of HIV cases declines, and can use it
to give themselves raises or just spend it on crack if they want.
This will provide a serious incentive to do their job and actually
control the spread of the disease. No longer will they send an HIV
patient home with a bottle of pills and a free drink coupon for the
Crisco Disco, because anyone he infects will be their financial
responsibility. If health workers didn't feel he could be trusted to
practice safe ., they would quarantine him rather than risk losing
their annual bonuses.
Another benefit of my idea is that it would force pharmaceutical
companies to reduce the prices of HIV drugs. Ever-increasing demand
combined with ever-increasing budgets leads to ever-increasing prices.
Lower demand combined with lower budgets will lead to lower prices. |
