State Budget Adds Money For HIV And AIDS Treatment

Wisconsin’s Joint Finance Committee is giving more money to a fund for people with HIV and AIDS. The extra $300,000 will help provide medicine and other services.

Under the proposed budget, the Mike Johnson Life Care and Early Intervention grant will be funded at $3.7 million. The fund helps patients pay for doctor visits, dental, and mental health care.

Bill Keeton, a spokesman for the Aids Resource Center of Wisconsin, said the added money is helpful because most HIV and AIDS patients live at or below the poverty line. Keeton said the money can also be used for things not directly linked to the disease.

“Programs like social work case managers, housing counselors, access to food pantries and legal representation if they need it,” he said.

Keeton said about 8,100 people in Wisconsin are living with HIV or AIDS and the state fund helps roughly half of them.