***** Reformated. Please distribute. CLINTON GORE ON AIDS Fighting the AIDS epidemic will be a top priority of a Clinton/Gore Administration. If we fail to commitour hearts and resources now to fighting AIDS, we will pay a far greater price in the future, both in deaths and in dollars. We need leaders who will focus national attention on AIDS, to encourage compassion and understanding, to promote education and to speak out against intolerance. We can't afford another four years without a plan to declare war on AIDS. We can't afford to have yet another President who remains silent about AIDS or who puts the issue on the back burner. THE CLINTON/GORE PLAN Increase funding for desperately needed new initiatives in research, prevention and treatment. Appoint an AIDS policy director to coordinate federal AIDS policies, cut through bureaucratic red tape and implement recommendations made by the National Commission on AIDS. Speed up the drug approval process and commit increased resources to research and development of AIDS-related treatments and vaccines, and ensure that women and people of color are included in research and drug trials. Fully fund the Ryan White CARE Act. Work closely with individuals and communities that are affected by HIV to create a partnership between the federal government and those with knowledge and experience in fighting HIV. Promote a national AIDS education and prevention initiative that disseminates frank and accurate information to reduce the spread of the disease, and educates our children about the nature and threat of AIDS. Provide quality health coverage to all Americans with HIV as part of a broader national health care program; work vigorously to improve access to promising experimental therapies for people with life-threatening illnesses; and improve preventive and long-term care. Combat AIDS-related discrimination and oppose needless mandatory HIV testing in federal organizations such as the Peace Corps, Job Corps and the Foreign Service; stop the cynical politicization of immigration policies by directing the Justice Department to follow the Department of Health and Human Services' recommendation that HIV be removed from the immigration restrictions list; promote legislation based on sound scientific and public health principles, not on panic, politics and prejudice. Prevention and education Launch a strong and effective AIDS education campaign. Reevaluate the AIDS prevention budget at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to ensure that education is a top priority. Ensure that increased funding for prevention and services goes directly to community based organizations that are on the frontline of the battle against the HIV virus. Promote AIDS education in American schools. Provide drug treatment on demand to stop the spread of HIV by intravenous drug users. Increase funding for behavior and social science research so that we can better understand the behaviors that put people at risk for HIV. Support local efforts to make condoms available in schools. Treatment and care Provide health care for all Americans, including those with HIV, through coverage they obtain either on the job or through government-mandated programs, which will include: - Comprehensive inpatient and outpatient services, including frequent diagnostic monitoring, early intervention therapies, and psychological care. - Prescription drugs and improved access to experimental therapies. Because treatments are not accessible unless they are affordable, a Clinton/Gore Administration will support legislation that denies tax breaks to companies that raise the cost of drugs faster than Americans' ability to pay for them. - Adequate options for long-term home and community-based care that minimize unnecessary and wasteful hospitalizations. - Voluntary, confidential, or anonymous testing and counseling for AIDS and HIV for every American who wants it. Encourage the Centers for Disease Control to review periodically their definition of AIDS to ensure that symptoms and infections that occur among women, people of color and drug users are included in the federal definition, and promptly made eligible for all federal benefit programs for people with AIDS. Develop programs with the Department of Health and Human Service to ensure that America's health care professional are kept fully and regularly informed aobut diagnosing and treating HIV. Have the National Institutes of Health (NIH) develop a formalized mechanism to make sure that state-of-the-art informations is broadly and rapidly disseminated to health professional and people with HIV disease. Treatment and drug development Work vigorously to develop a vaccine against AIDS and to find therapies that will destroy HIV, repair the immune system and prevent and treat AIDS-related infections. Increase funding for both AIDS-specific and general biomedical research. Expand clinical and community based trials for treatments and vaccines, and raise the level of participation of under-represented populations. Reorganize the NIH infrastructure to streamline AIDS research efforts and improve planning efficiency and communication. Promote a more rapid review by the NIH of research grant applications and a speedier distribution of funding for approved studies. Facilitate greater access to drugs and work to speed up the drug approval process. Ensure that the FDA has the resources to assist in the efficient design of AIDS-related drug trials and to review their results rapidly. The FDA will also make possible greater access to promising experimental therapies without compromising patient safety. Discrimination Fight all AIDS-related discrimination and discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation. Fully implement the Americans with Disabilities Act and resist any efforts to weaken its provisions. The Department of Justice and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights must make it a high priority to monitor the occurrence of AIDS-related discrimination and the enforcement of the ADA with respect to HIV-related complaints. Forbid health insurance companies form denying coverage to HIV-positive applicants. Prhohibit all health plans from adopting discriminatory caps or exclusions that provide lower coverage for AIDS than for any other life-threatening illnesses. No American will be denied health coverage because he or she loses a job or has a pre-existing condition. Oppose mandatory testing in federal organizations like the Peace Corps and Foreign Service. Lift the current ban on travel and immigration to the U.S. by foreign nationals with HIV. The Record As chairman of the National Governors' Association, Governor Clinton formed the first working group of governors to develop an AIDS policy. Clinton was a moving force in the creation of an AIDS action plan adopted by the Governors' Association which called for education and prevention efforts at the local, state and federal levels. Governor Clinton supported teacher training for AIDS education and a detailed study of the availability of HIV education at the local level. Since 1990, AIDS education has been required in all Arkansas schools, and there has been a 40% increase in HIV counseling and voluntary testing in Arkansas. The Arkansas AIDS Advisory Committee was established in 1987. This committee makes recommendations on HIV policy and program services. HIV services in the state currently include anonymous testing at two centers and confidential testing and counseling at public health clinics in all 75 Arkansas counties. Senator Al Gore voted to ban discrimination against people with AIDS or HIV. Voted for legislation to remove HIV from the immigration restrictions list. Supported funding for the Ryan White AIDS Act. Voted to provide emergency relief to metropolitan areas hardest hit by AIDS, to health care facilities serving many low-income individuals and families with HIV and to states to assist in improving the quality of treatment and support services for people with HIV.