Clinton says he wants more federal funding for HIV-positive and AIDS patients to help them pay for drugs (Reuters, Dec. 31). In fact, he wants $218 million more spent in 1999 on subsidizing the purchase of drugs than was spent in 1997, for a 1999 total of $385 million.
Gay/lesbian organizations, AIDS activists and limelight-seeking politicians are all praising Clinton for his renewed committment to caring for the diseased. It is understandable that the Republicans are for the increase. The activists, though, are apparently too politically naive to realize that it is all par for the course, and they are playing their parts wonderfully.
Gays and AIDS activists joined up with the GOP to hound Clinton for more money to pay for drugs. But, surprise surprise, most of the money went to funding the purchase of drugs and diverted from prevention programs. Even a smidgeon of economic insight will reveal what is going on here.
Federal funds going toward the purchase of drugs is simply yet another piece of corporate welfare for the pharmaceutical industry.
Activists buy this line of reasoning because they are dazzled by drugs, plain and simple. It is not a secret that the new protease inhibitors seem to work in only about half the patients who take them, a situation that was even predicted to be the case before it was reported.
None of this matters, though. As other essays here have explored, AIDS is a a machine, a mechanism for funneling money from public into private hands, and federal funding for the purchase of drugs is no different. In fact, it is exactly the type of proposal one should expect the system to come up with to both passify AIDS activists and tap a new source of funds for the drug industry.
Does anyone really think that both the House and the Senate are oh-so-terribly concerned about homosexuals, drug users, minorities, poor women and other groups burdened by immune suppression? Lawmakers have marginalized, ridiculed, imprisoned, moralized about and otherwise made a career out of shitting upon these populations for years. Suddenly they are anxious to give hundreds of millions to them just to keep them healthy?
Not a chance. That money will end up in the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry, and that industry can pay for an election or two. In fact, it could be argued that increased access to the new drugs will actually exacerbate the problem of immune suppression. There are several reports that more people are engaging so-called "risk behaviors" thinking that the new drugs will save them from AIDS. But Congress and the President don't give a rat's pooper if the drugs only work half the time. Some higher math will demonstrate that this means that about $192.5 million of the funds spent to buy these drugs will be wasted money. They don't care if it might lead to a spread of the dreaded HIV because of more naughty behavior. They are unconcerned with the fact that preventing a disease is obviously better than treating it. They support money for drugs because it is another way to get funds to one of the industries that pays their bills.
And as long as AIDS activists go along with it, Congress can soak up the "gay-friendly" votes while continuing to pad the coffers of the medical-industrial complex.