About AIDS
Health Care for HIV-Positive People Makes Dollar-Sense
By Sandy Bartlett, Fri., May 18, 2001
While it's true that HIV care - especially the drugs - is expensive, hospitalization is even more costly. By keeping infected people as well as possible, the lifetime care costs are reduced.
Three additional benefits - two practical and one humane - also accrue by keeping people healthy:
A healthy person is able to continue in employment, even if it's just a low-wage job, thus contributing something to the tax coffers and not requiring as much welfare assistance;
HIV-infected people who are successful with the therapies can, generally speaking, achieve low viral levels, which reduces the risk of
transmission to others. This may be very helpful in slowing the further spread of the AIDS virus;
Controlling a person's infection, especially if reached early, contributes dramatically to higher quality of life.
Waiting until a person's health has hit the skids before assisting with medical care has always been a short-sighted response, not only in human terms, but also financially. It's good to see that at least one state's decision-makers have awakened to reality. Is anybody in the Legislature or at the Texas Department of Health taking notice?