In This Issue

To help lay the foundation for ending the AIDS epidemic, the Black AIDS Institute believes that people living with HIV need to come out of the closet and live opening and proudly with HIV. Here activist Lolisa Gibson shares the story of her positive diagnosis and her decision to be open about her status. One of the most important benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for people living with HIV/AIDS is that it will increase access to testing and care, including eliminating insurers' ability to deny people coverage because they have a pre-existing condition such as HIV/AIDS. We share a video in which Secretary of Health Kathleen Sebelius explains.

Premiums will skyrocket! Premiums will plummet! It's hard to know what to believe about the ACA's impact on consumer health-insurance costs. Our friends at Kaiser Health News tell us five things we need to know about the ACA's influence on the price of health insurance premiums.

Questions are also being asked about how the government will verify income as people shop the health insurance marketplaces that open on October 1. KHN's Mary Agnes Carey speaks with Politico Pro's Jennifer Haberkorn about two House committee meetings on this issue.

Finally, new research suggests that HIV infection and illegal drug use, particularly smoking crack, compound each one's ability to diminish women's cognitive performance.

Yours in the struggle,

Raniyah M. Copeland