What Dr. King Would Tell President Obama

Last week was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and tonight President Obama will deliver the 2014 State of the Union address. In a nod to The Dreamer, I had a dream myself. In my dream Dr. King had a number of questions for the President as he prepares for tonight's address.

1. Getting an HIV test today has ever been easier or more important. Today HIV tests are often free, painless and confidential—even anonymous—and they're fast. And yet some 200,000 people living with HIV don't know their status. Dr. King would want to know: What are we doing to help those folks find out their HIV status?

2. We have better surveillance tools than we've ever had before. We can identify hotspots down to ZIP codes or census tracts. Yet we still have HIV disparities in this country based on geography, race or both. So I think Dr. King would want to know: What are we going to do to help the 500,000 Black people living with HIV, 220,000 Latinos with HIV, and the more than 500,000 people living with HIV in the South address HIV?

3. We have better treatments today. The treatments have a lower pill burdens, the regimens are easier, they're more effective and there are fewer side effects. And yet 640,000 PLWHA are not on treatment and only 275,000 have driven their virus to undetectable levels. Dr. King would want to know: How are we going to make sure that the ACA serves people living with HIV/AIDS?

4. We know that treatment is prevention. We can virtually stop HIV transmission by making sure that everyone living with HIV has access to treatment, adheres to their treatment and achieves viral suppression. Dr. King would challenge the President to announce a plan to get the 1.125 million Americans living with HIV on treatment so that we can break the back of HIV transmission.

I don't know what the President is going to say during the State of the Union Address tonight. I do know all these questions are worthy of answers regardless of who asks them. We've come too far in the fight against HIV/AIDS to turn back now. According to the President, he has a pen and a phone. He should use both to help end the AIDS epidemic in this country. If we can get almost 7 million people on treatment thru PEPFAR using US dollars, surely we can afford to get the 1.125 million Americans living with HIV on treatment.

In this issue we run the first in a series of stories about HIV criminalization that our friends at the investigative journalism website ProPublica have shared with us. We also look at the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, first by examining President Obama's midterm report card and, second, by examining how Michigan has decided to embrace the expansion of Medicaid. We remind you about our Drive Out AIDS, Win a New Car raffle, whose early-bird drawing takes place on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, February 7th. Finally we run a story about The National Conference on LGBT Equality's efforts to keep people ages 50 and older up to speed on new media.

Yours in the struggle,

Phill