announces HIV/AIDS plan

[Guest guest]

September 24, 2007

announces HIV/AIDS plan

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Trying to reclaim the health care spotlight from campaign

rival

Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential hopeful unveiled his plan

to combat

HIV/AIDS during an appearance at the Families USA/Kaiser Foundation Health Care

Forum

on Monday in Washington, D.C.

The former North Carolina senator argued that, in order to better combat

HIV/AIDS

domestically, Medicaid needs to provide more extensive coverage for HIV-related

treatment. He also advocated teaching age-appropriate sex education and ending

the

federal ban on needle exchange programs. Turning his attention to the worldwide

scale of

the epidemic, argued that the United States should invest an additional

$50

billion in global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment over a five-year period.

Additionally,

he proposed bypassing the FDA and relying on the World Health Organization to

provide

approval for new AIDS drugs in the developing world.

The former senator used the occasion to highlight the racial disparity in new

rates of HIV/

AIDS infection. " This is a disease that hits people of color much harder than

others, " he

said, explaining that, in the U.S., two out of every three newly diagnosed cases

are with

Americans of color.

also took advantage of the forum to slam President Bush's threatened

veto of a

proposed expansion of the joint state-federal children's health insurance

program. " Here

is health insurance for children who have no health insurance, " said . " I

can't even

imagine what the argument is honestly…. I just don't think this is where America

is. I'm

not sure exactly what the president's thinking. "

, who was a trial lawyer before seeking elective office, took issue with

the belief

that legal malpractice judgments are largely responsible for rising health care

costs. He

dismissed that particular argument as " mostly insurance company-driven

hysteria. "

claimed that the " reality is that the costs associated with legal cases

is well under

one percent of [total costs in the] health care system. " Nevertheless, the

presidential

hopeful did unveil a proposal to contain legal malpractice costs by placing more

responsibility on lawyers to file only cases with substantial legal merit.

In a short press conference after the forum, criticized the health care

reform

proposals of the GOP White House hopefuls. " None of them seem serious to me, " he

said.

" They're not universal. They're not comprehensive health care reform. They seem

to be a

reiteration of the same old, tired Republican efforts of the past, [such as]

health savings

accounts. "

–CNN's Silvio Carillo and a