As part of the Medicare expansion, the cost of an annual HIV test will be covered for all Medicare beneficiaries who request a test. The coverage takes affect immediately. The exact language of the decision actually states an annual HIV test will be covered for the following people; those people at risk for HIV:
- Men who have had sex with men after 1975
- Men and women having unprotected sex with multiple [more than one] partners
- Past or present injection drug users
- Men and women who exchange sex for money or drugs, or have sex partners who do
- Individuals whose past or present sex partners were HIV-infected, bisexual or injection drug users
- Persons being treated for sexually transmitted diseases
- Persons with a history of blood transfusion between 1978 and 1985
- Persons who request an HIV test despite reporting no individual risk factors, since this group is likely to include individuals not willing to disclose high-risk behaviors; and
- Voluntary HIV screening of pregnant Medicare beneficiaries when the diagnosis of pregnancy is known, during the third trimester, and at labor.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services calls the decision a milestone that helps keep Medicare beneficiaries healthy and will allow Medicare take a more active role in evaluating the evidence for preventive services.
The announcement linking HIV and heart disease is not the first example of the connection. In 2005, a European study examined the impact of HIV medications on the human body. This study is thought to be the first that suggested HIV had an effect on cardiac health. Specifically, the study showed that people infected with HIV were twice as likely to have a heart attack than people not infected with HIV. This was confirmed in a study whose results were reported in 2007. Again, the study confirmed that HIV positive people were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack than HIV negative people. 