    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [July 5, 1995]
    [Pages 1045-1046]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Letter to Congressional Leaders on Reauthorization of the Ryan White
    CARE Act
    July 5, 1995

    Dear Mr. Speaker:  (Dear Mr. Leader:)
        I am writing to urge you to lead the Congress in passing the
    reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act before the summer recess. We
    cannot allow this crucial program to lapse.
        There is strong bipartisan support for the Ryan White CARE Act. The
    initial legislation was approved by overwhelming margins in both houses
    (95-4 in the Senate and 408-14 in the House) and signed into law by
    President Bush. Funding for this program has been endorsed from both
    sides of the aisle throughout the five years of the program and the
    reauthorization bill in the Senate has 60 co-sponsors. It is a program
    vital to the lives of Americans living with HIV and AIDS. Its existence
    has had a dramatic impact on the quality and length of their lives while
    helping to reduce the cost of their care.
        The CARE Act provides direct services to people living with HIV and
    AIDS through grants to states, cities, community organizations, and
    local clinics. It emphasizes outpatient care in clinics and other
    facilities and is designed to relieve the burden on public hospitals and
    other more expensive inpatient facilities.
        It has been a tremendous success in meeting this mandate. By
    lessening the demand on public hospitals and other facilities, valuable
    inpatient resources have been freed to care for patients with other
    diseases, and people with HIV and AIDS have been able to lead more
    produc-

    [[Page 1046]]

    tive lives in their communities. The CARE Act approach serves as a model
    for delivering more cost-effective health care for people with all
    diseases.
        In 1994, the CARE Act provided care to more than 200,000 uninsured
    and underinsured people living with HIV or AIDS and early intervention
    services to another 85,000 people. The Act also funded HIV counseling
    and testing to nearly 100,000 Americans, provided pharmaceutical
    assistance to 75,000 individuals, and supported more than 15,000 women
    and children participating in AIDS-related clinical trials.
        Let me share with you the story of one person who has been helped by
    this program--one person whose experience with the CARE Act is typical
    of literally hundreds of thousands of other Americans who have benefited
    from this law. ``Debbie'' is a 27 year old woman living with AIDS in a
    rural part of South Carolina. Until recently, few doctors in Debbie's
    hometown were willing to treat AIDS patients in part because so many
    were uninsured. With funding from the Ryan White CARE Act, the County
    Health Department opened a clinic in the town of Orangeburg that
    operated six days a month with a rotating staff of five physicians and
    three nurses. The clinic's staff has taught Debbie's mother to care for
    her daughter at home. When Debbie is too sick to come to the clinic, the
    staff comes to her. Not only has this prevented more costly
    hospitalizations, but it provides Debbie and her mother peace of mind.
    Debbie's Mom calls the clinic's staff her ``guardian angels.''
        The Ryan White CARE Act is a model of compassionate caring for
    people in need. At a time when AIDS is the leading cause of death of
    young adults, we cannot let reauthorization of the CARE Act be held up
    by divisive arguments about how people contracted HIV. Nor should we be
    deterred by the false argument that people with HIV and AIDS are getting
    more help than those with other diseases. In fact, total federal
    spending in FY 1995 for research, treatment prevention, Medicaid,
    Medicare, and income supplements for AIDS is less than one-third that
    for cancer and less than one-sixth that for heart disease. (AIDS
    spending is $6 billion, cancer is $17.5 billion, and heart disease is
    $38 billion.)
        In the United States, an average of 220 Americans are being
    diagnosed with AIDS every day and an average of 109 Americans are dying
    of this disease each day. Now is not the time to retreat in our national
    response to this terrible disease. We must move forward to meet the very
    real needs of Americans living with HIV and AIDS. We can certainly do
    more, we cannot do any less.
        I hope you will join me in urging the Congress to move forward
    promptly with a five-year reauthorization of this vital program without
    complicated amendments so that we can once again show the American
    people that their government can provide the assistance they deserve.
            Sincerely,

                                                                Bill Clinton

    Note: Identical letters were sent to Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the House
    of Representatives, and Bob Dole, Senate majority leader.