National AIDS Fund

National AIDS Fund
The Fund’s primary purpose is channeling critical resources to community-based
organizations to fight HIV/AIDS at the local level. Through 29 state and local funding
collaboratives – the NAF Community Partnerships – the Fund provides grants and other
support to nearly 500 community-based organizations annually, principally for
prevention efforts. The National AIDS Fund’s Community Partnerships use the leverage
of national grants to raise support locally, and make community-level decisions about
how and where funds should be spent. Together with the Community Partnerships, the
Fund has raised and invested over $100 million since 1988 for the fight against
HIV/AIDS in the United States.
Nationally, the network of 29 Community Partnerships represents an infrastructure for
channeling national resources to local programs across the country that can best utilize
that support. At the state and local levels, the 29 Community Partnerships serve not
only as collaborative fundraising and grantmaking bodies, but also often as conveners,
technical assistance providers, community builders, and policy advocates.
Since 1981, the U.S. Federal government has spent more than $100 billion in
combating HIV/AIDS, with more than 94% of this spent within the United States.
Federal government spending on AIDS in the fiscal year ending in September 2002
(FY2002) totaled $14.7 billion. The President’s budget request for FY2003 for
HIV/AIDS-related programs was $15.8 billion.
Beginning in 1981 with the allocation of several hundred thousand dollars for research,
U.S. government spending on HIV/AIDS nearly doubled every year between FY1982
and FY1989. Since then, annual increases in Federal spending have been more
gradual.
Approximately 93% of U.S. government spending on HIV/AIDS is now through the four
mandatory entitlement programs of Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security Disability
Insurance (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and through the four
discretionary programs of the Ryan White CARE Act, the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).Medicaid is a joint Federal and State program providing health and long-term care
coverage to low-income Americans. Among all adults living with HIV in the United
States, approximately one in four is enrolled in Medicaid and another 15% are dually
enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid also covers approximately 90% of
children living with AIDS. In many states, Medicaid covers the costs of clinical care
and also prescription drugs, case management, adult day health care, and hospice care.
Medicaid is the largest single HIV/AIDS-related government program, although
spending on HIV/AIDS amounts to less than 5% of Medicaid spending and is probably
lower than spending on other diseases such as cancer or diabetes. In total dollar
amounts, the U.S. Federal Medicaid program spent more than $4.2 billion each year on
HIV/AIDS in FY2002, with a matching contribution from each state of an estimated
$3.5 billion.