Reduced Federal Funding for San Francisco HIV/AIDS Programs Will Have Negative Effects, Pelosi Letter States
A reduction in federal funds that San Francisco receives to provide services to people with HIV/AIDS "will have a devastating impact" on such services in the Bay Area, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Gordon, San Francisco Chronicle, 3/19). Under the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, San Francisco will receive $4 million less in federal grants in 2004 than it did in 2003, a drop of 12%, while Oakland and San Jose will receive 5.9% and 5.1% less fuding, respectively. The grant amounts are based on an allocation formula related to the number of HIV and AIDS cases in a metropolitan area and on the quality of the funding application relative to other metropolitan areas' applications. HHS officials said the federal review panel that judges the applications may have found other cities' applications to be superior, adding that a report detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the San Francisco application would be sent to the city (California Healthline, 3/4). According to the Chronicle, Pelosi asked Thompson for a "full explanation" of why the funds were reduced and whether other federal funds would be provided to the city. In her letter, Pelosi said that the funding reduction would cause San Francisco to eliminate "1,171 hours of treatment adherence services, 554 days of adult day health services, 1,779 dental procedures, integrated case management for 527 people and numerous other health services that are critical to maintain and improve the health" of people with HIV/AIDS (San Francisco Chronicle, 3/19). The text of the Pelosi letter is available online.
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