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- The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act was enacted August 18, 1990 by the U.S. Congress. Ryan White was an Indiana teenager who contracted AIDS through a tainted hemophilia treatment and was expelled from school because of the disease. White became a well-known advocate for AIDS research and awareness until his death on April 8, 1990.
- The act is the United States’s largest federally funded program for people living with HIV/AIDS. The act sought funding to improve availability of care for low-income, uninsured and under-insured victims of AIDS and their families.
- Unlike Medicare or Medicaid, Ryan White programs are “payer of last resort,” which fund treatment when no other resources are available. As AIDS has spread, the funding of the program has increased. In 1991, the first year funds were appropriated, around US$220 million were spent; by the early 2000s, this number had almost increased 10-fold. The Ryan White Care Act was reauthorized in 1996, 2000 and 2006. The program provides some level of care for around 500,000 people a year and, in 2004, provided funds to 2,567 organizations. The Ryan White programs also fund local and State primary medical care providers, support services, healthcare provider training programs, and provide technical assistance to such organizations.
- Information courtesy of Wikipedi.
