ABSTRACT
This chapter describes estimates of the magnitude of the epidemic arid its concurrent health care costs, the federal programs of health care finance that may provide payment for some of these costs, congressional activity to amend these programs, and a range of proposed changes that may be taken up in the future. Congressional oversight hearings on the costs of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) care and sources of payment began relatively early, pre-dating the Coolfont conference, and have continued. Medicare, the federal program for the financing of health care for the elderly and the permanently disabled, represents the largest component of federal health expenditures, but it is virtually unused as a means for paying for AIDS health care. From a federal perspective, AIDS health care financing is essentially a Medicaid issue. Across the board, the most immediate question is one of data. Early congressional disagreements with the Administration were almost solely on biomedical research budgets.
