2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University, sponsored by PBS: on Health Care

Barack Obama: Homophobia prevents talking about HIV/AIDS

Barack Obama: Got tested for AIDS, with wife, in public, in Kenya

BIDEN: You’re asking, how do we prevent these 17-year-olds from getting HIV? All the things that were said here [by other candidates] are good ideas; but they don’t prevent that. I spent last summer going through the black sections of my town, trying to get black men to understand it is not unmanly to wear a condom, getting women to understand they can say no, getting people in the position where testing matters. I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There’s no shame in being tested for AIDS.

OBAMA: I just got to make clear--I got tested with Michelle, when we were in Kenya in Africa. I don’t want any confusion here about what’s going on.

BIDEN: And I got tested to save my life, because I had 13 pints of blood transfusion.

OBAMA: I was tested with my wife. In public.

Bill Richardson: Fund fight on HIV/AIDS both nationally and internationally

A: It is a moral imperative that America have a policy to fight this dreaded disease both nationally and internationally. You got to make some tough choices. First, we’ve got to have needles [in exchange programs]. We have to be sure that we have efforts in the African-American community to have comprehensive education. In addition, we have to deal with Africa. Close to 20% of the African people have some kind of HIV virus. It’s important that the president of the US make a major funding effort, a major commitment to deal with this issue. And here I’m going to say something positive about President Bush. His funding for Millennium accountability and Millennium appropriations has been relatively impressive.

Bill Richardson: FactCheck: AIDS rate in Africa is 5.8%, not 20% as claimed

That’s a huge overstatement. It is true that there are some individual countries in Africa with a 20% or higher rate of HIV infection. In fact, when we contacted the Richardson campaign, an aide cited statistics showing seven countries with that level of infection. However, that’s out of 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

While the number of HIV cases in sub-Saharan Africa is quite large--25 million, according to the UN--it is not nearly 20% of the total population of the region. In fact, it’s 5.8%, according to the World Bank. Adding in North Africa, with its lower rate of HIV infection, would further reduce the overall percentage for all the “African people.” The UN did estimate that more than 25% of Africans were directly affected, though not infected, by HIV; this included spouses, children & elderly dependents of HIV sufferers.

Dennis Kucinich: Healthcare access is a basic right in a democratic society

Hillary Clinton: Outcry if AIDS were leading disease of young whites

A: Let me just put this in perspective. If HIV/AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34, there would be an outraged outcry in this country.

I’m working to get Medicaid to cover treatment. I’m working to raise the budget for Ryan White, which the Bush administration has kept flat, disgracefully so, because there are a lot of women, particularly, who are becoming infected in poor rural areas as well as underserved urban areas in states where, frankly, their state governments won’t give them medical care.

So this is a multiple dimension problem. But if we don’t begin to take it seriously and address it the way we did back in the ‘90s, when it was primarily a gay men’s disease, we will never get the services and the public education that we need.

Hillary Clinton: FactCheck: Yes, AIDS is leading disease of young black women

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV/AIDS is indeed the leading cause of death of black women aged 25 to 34. Sen. Clinton also accused the Bush Administration of “disgracefully” keeping funding for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program “flat,” and in fact, spending on that program has hovered at just over $2 billion for the past five years, according to figures from the Department of Health and Human Services.

Joe Biden: Got tested for AIDS after blood transfusion; no shame in it

BIDEN: You’re asking, how do we prevent these 17-year-olds from getting HIV? All the things that were said here [by the other candidates] are good ideas; but they don’t prevent that. There’s neglect on the part of the medical and the white community focusing on educating the minority community out there. I spent last summer going through the black sections of my town, trying to get black men to understand it is not unmanly to wear a condom, getting women to understand they can say no, getting people in the position where testing matters. I got tested for AIDS. I know Barack got tested for AIDS. There’s no shame in being tested for AIDS.

OBAMA: I got tested with my wife Michelle, in public, when we were in Kenya.

BIDEN: And I got tested to save my life, because I had 13 pints of blood transfusion.

John Edwards: Fully fund finding a cure for AIDS

1. We need to fully fund finding a cure for AIDS, so we can end this scourge once and for all.
2. We need to fully fund the law known as Ryan White, to make sure that the treatment is available for anybody who’s diagnosed with AIDS.
3. Finally, we need to ensure that Medicaid covers AIDS drugs and AIDS treatment to make sure that people get the treatment they need, particularly low-income individuals who are diagnosed with AIDS.

John Edwards: FactCheck: Medicaid already covers treatment for HIV/AIDS

Actually, Medicaid, a state-administered health care program for the poor, covers AIDS drugs already. There are no state limitations on Medicaid coverage of AIDS prescriptions.

What Edwards may have been trying to say is that he favors extending Medicaid coverage to low-income HIV patients who don’t qualify for Medicaid because they aren’t yet sick enough to be considered disabled. Even for low-income persons, just being diagnosed with HIV is not sufficient to be eligible for Medicaid. Many low-income people with HIV are not eligible for Medicaid until they become disabled, despite available therapies that might prevent disability.

Mike Gravel: End subsidization of the insurance companies

GRAVEL: Understand that the health care that we’re talking about, by and large, is going backwards. We’re subsidizing the insurance companies. And all the plans that I’ve heard of, except Dennis’s, is a continued subsidization of the insurance companies.