“I welcome the Minister’s decision to put HIV/AIDS diagnostic testing on the Medicare Benefits schedule, this is an issue of great importance to me and Im glad to see that the initiatives contained in my speech in Parliament last year on World AIDS Day, have been adopted by the Minister.” said Ms. Vamvakinou
“This decision is a real victory for the Victorian AIDS Council and the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations who have been lobbying the Federal Government for years to have HIV testing made available on the Medicare Benefits Schedule.” said Ms Vamvakinou
“Last year, another 780 Australians were diagnosed with the virus—a 13 per cent jump on the 690 who tested positive in 1999, a year considered to be a high result year. With infection rates on the rise governments should be doing everything possible to make HIV testing accessible and available.” said Ms Vamvakinou
In Ms. Vamvakinou’s speech last year she pointed out that:
“In Victoria there were some 202,679 HIV tests performed in 2002, resulting in 234 HIV diagnoses. Of those tests, only 6,043 were paid for by the Victorian state government, funded in part by the public health outcomes funding agreement. Therefore, the vast majority of these tests were paid for by the patient up front.”
Ms Vamvakinou concluded by saying:
“The cost of having these tests was becoming a financial burden for many Australians, as a result many were opting out of the testing regime and therefore posing a problem with detection and containment. Hopefully the Ministers ‘better late than never’ policy decision will mean that HIV testing will be more accessible for Australian’s.”
