2/9/2011—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contacts: Dorothée Alsentzer (617.390.2556)
Report Highlights Opportunities to Improve Healthcare Access for HIV Positive South Carolinians
Collaborative Report Emphasizes the Potential of State’s Diverse Community Landscape
Columbia – Researchers at Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic, in collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s WithInSight Initiative, today announced the findings of the South Carolina State Healthcare Access Research Project (SHARP) in a report that addresses the successes, challenges, and opportunities for access to healthcare in the state. The report—which is based on information gathered through in-state interviews, focus groups, and independent research—includes recommendations for improving access to care that take in to account both the fiscal pressures facing the state currently as well as the state’s rich cultural and community resources. The SHARP researchers and the South Carolina HIV/AIDS Care Crisis Task Force released the report today at the State House, highlighting the role that the Legislature can play in improving HIV prevention and access to healthcare throughout the state.
“South Carolina’s consumers, healthcare providers, faith leaders, and state officials realize the implications of HIV for individual and public health as well as for the state’s economy,” said Dorothée Alsentzer, Assistant Director of Harvard Law School’s Health Law and Policy Clinic and the lead researcher in South Carolina. “South Carolina can turn the tide now on the growing cost of this epidemic,” she said, “by implementing a coordinated strategy across agencies and communities in tandem with state investment.” The report recommends emphasizing prevention, engaging the state’s faith community, and fully funding the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, among other measures, as cost-effective steps that could slow the HIV epidemic and reign in the state’s healthcare costs.
According to the most recent data available from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), nearly 15,000 South Carolinians were living with HIV at the end of 2008. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) statistics show that the state’s rate of new HIV diagnoses is 11th highest in the nation. And South Carolina’s capital city has the 8th highest annual rate of AIDS diagnoses in the nation among cities with 500,000 or more residents. But despite significant advances in HIV treatment, approximately 56% of South Carolinians living with HIV or AIDS who know their health status are not in regular care. The ongoing state budget crisis has exacerbated the challenges that people living with HIV or AIDS face in accessing care by weakening the state’s health services infrastructure. For example, over 350 people are now on a waiting list for lifesaving HIV medications through the AIDS Drug Assistance Program.
SHARP is active in ten states.
Each SHARP state report is tailored to the individual state and is designed to create a foundation of knowledge for partners in their efforts to effectively advocate for improved healthcare access.
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