Series: 1. Advocacy: State, Local, and Federal Government, 1989-2001
Biography/History: From the earliest days of the AIDS epidemic, Vivent Health believed it was essential to include government advocacy as a major part of its mission. The government response to AIDS was initially slow and minimal which required strong, effective advocacy to increase funding and ensure enlightened AIDS policies by government at the state, local, and federal levels. ARCW focused its advocacy efforts on securing and increasing government funding to help build a comprehensive system of HIV prevention, care and treatment services throughout Wisconsin. ARCW's lobbying began with the State Legislature, Governor and the State Department of Health Services and soon extended to the City of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County, and other county governments.

Subseries: State Government, 1989-2001

Biography/History

1989-1991 State Budget

ARCW proposed and lobbied for the Wisconsin AIDS Initiative, a proposal that for the first time would provide state funding to support HIV/AIDS patients through a statewide centralized case management system called Life Care Services. ARCW won bipartisan support for the proposal.

ARCW won support for a $150,000 grant to the Wisconsin AIDS Research Consortium for HIV clinical drug trial research, and for an increase in Life Care Services funding to $1.8 million. To increase the effectiveness of AIDS advocacy, ARCW formed the Wisconsin AIDS Response Network (WARN) comprised of all AIDS Service Organizations in the state.

ARCW worked with the Secretary of the Department of Health Services and the Governor to establish new funding in the state budget for early medical intervention services for HIV patients. $680,000 was approved for AIDS Service Organizations to provide physical health assessments, mental health screenings and laboratory testing. This was the first health care-related funding from the state for AIDS Service Organizations. ARCW lobbied for and won an increase of $420,000 in Life Care Services funding. In total, AIDS funding in this state budget increased by $1.1 million and the Life Care Services biennial funding rose to a total of $2.4 million, double the amount initially set for the program in the 1989-1991 state budget.

In the 1995-1997 biennial state budget, ARCW lobbied successfully to avoid cuts to AIDS funding and with strong bi-partisan support won a surprising unanimous vote on the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee to increase Life Care Services funding by $223,000 or 7%.

In 1997, ARCW expanded the WARN system to involve citizen advocates from throughout the state. It created AIDS Action Wisconsin and urged concerned citizens to join in advocating for responsive AIDS policies. These advocates were very helpful to ARCW as it lobbied for and won AIDS funding increases in the 1997-1999 biennial budget.

In 1999, ARCW held the first AIDS lobby day at the State Capitol with 123 AIDS Action Wisconsin advocates participating. Their advocacy helped ARCW win support for a $300,000 increase in state prevention funding and a $200,000 increase in Life Care Services funding in the 1999-2001 biennial budget.

Budget, 1989-1991

Budget, 1991-1993

Budget, 1993-1995

HIV Testing Legislation, 1993-1995

Budget, 1995-1997

Budget, 1997-1999

Budget, 1999-2001

Subseries: City of Milwaukee, 1989-2001

Biography/History

ARCW initiated its advocacy for City of Milwaukee AIDS funding in 1993 with a $190,000 AIDS funding proposal entitled the Milwaukee AIDS Initiative. ARCW recruited five other agencies providing AIDS services in Milwaukee to join a coalition with ARCW to secure and receive City funding through the Milwaukee AIDS Initiative. HIV services to be funded by the initiative included HIV education and prevention outreach, testing, and case management, food services, housing services, and legal services. Despite initial opposition from Mayor John Norquist, the proposal was eventually funded.

In the 1995 city budget, ARCW advocacy was required when the Personnel and Finance Committee of the Common Council cut $69,200 in historic ARCW AIDS prevention funding from the budget. Following an intensive lobby effort with Council members, ARCW won a major victory to restore the proposed cut and also to retain the Milwaukee AIDS Initiative.

In the 1997 city budget ARCW lobbied for a new funding initiative called the Milwaukee Partnership to Stop AIDS which would bring the City of Milwaukee into partnership with Milwaukee County, the State of Wisconsin, and private sector donors in a comprehensive prevention strategy to reduce HIV infection among the Milwaukee’s 6,000 injection drug users. In total, it was a $1 million program with the City of Milwaukee contributing new funding of $100,000. The Common Council and the Mayor eventually supported an additional $50,000 in AIDS funding for the Milwaukee AIDS Initiative, bringing its total funding to $240,000.

In spring 1993 the City of Milwaukee experienced a severe contamination of its drinking water with cryptosporidium causing extreme gastrointestinal and diarrheal illness for 400,000 residents. During the crisis, 92 AIDS patients died.

ARCW provided its clients with clean water, and advised them not to drink Milwaukee tap water and to monitor their health in collaboration with Milwaukee area physicians. ARCW also worked with Milwaukee’s City Health Department, Common Council, and Mayor to secure their acknowledgement of the life-threatening nature of cryptosporidiosis for AIDS patients and their cooperation in offering specific recommendations for avoiding and managing cryptosporidiosis among immune compromised individuals.

Budget, 1994

Budget, 1995

Budget, 1997

Cryptosporidium Crisis, 1993-1994

Cryptosporidium Crisis, Miller Brewing Company, Emergency Drinking Water Bottle, 1993-1994
Physical Description: 32 oz. glass bottle 

Subseries: Milwaukee County, 1995-2000
Biography/History

ARCW extended its advocacy to Milwaukee County in 1994 which resulted in $50,000 of funding for AIDS prevention in the 1995 budget.

The 1997 budget included funding for the Stop Teen AIDS program that focused on reducing HIV infection among high risk youth. During this budget cycle, ARCW also took steps to reduce HIV transmission among gay and bisexual men and reduce public sex activity in Milwaukee County parks.

ARCW advocated for funding to support its Lifepoint clean needle exchange program in the 1999 County Budget. Despite the support of the County Executive and the Finance and Audit Committee of the County Board, the full County Board narrowly voted to remove the $100,000 funding from the budget.

The following year ARCW broadened its Milwaukee County budget request by integrating the needle exchange program with a new HIV & Hepatitis C Prevention & Drug Treatment Harm Reduction initiative. ARCW affirmed that county funding would not be used to purchase needles, but would be used to fund an increase in ARCW prevention and needle exchange staff. With this assurance, the County Executive and the County Board provided $100,000 of funding for the expanded harm reduction prevention program for injection drug users.

Budget, Funding for Prevention and Legal Assistance, 1995

Budget, Increased Prevention Funding for Stop Teen AIDS and Plan for Public Sex Environment Outreach, 1997

Budget, Funding for Needle Exchange, 1999

Needle Exchange, 1991-1998

Needle Exchange, Commemorative Hypodermic Needle, undated
Physical Description: Hypodermic needle pin with red ribbon 

Budget, Increased Prevention Funding for Intravenous Drug User Harm Reduction, 2000

Subseries: Kenosha County, 1994-1997
Biography/History: ARCW advocacy was initiated in Kenosha County in 1994. In 1997 the Kenosha County Department of Social Services voted to provide funding to ARCW for HIV prevention and to work in collaboration with other Kenosha County agencies serving high-risk youth.

Budget, 1994-1997

Subseries: State Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) Authority, 1989-2001
Biography/History: In 2008 the Board of Directors of the State Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) adopted a highly discriminatory policy that singled out HIV patients from all other patients in its medication payment policies. ARCW officials opposed the policy.

HIRSP Discrimination Against AIDS/HIV Patients, 2007-2010

Subseries: Miscellaneous, 1989-1999
Abstract: Contents consist primarily of correspondence related to state funding of HIV/AIDS initiatives.

Miscellaneous, 1989-1999

Subseries: Federal Government, 1990-1999

Subseries: Ryan White Care Act, 1993-1999
Biography/History

ARCW advocacy with the federal government began with participation on the Board of Directors of the national AIDS Action Council whose mission is to bring AIDS public policy advocacy to Congress and the Executive branch. From 1992 to 1996, ARCW President and CEO Doug Nelson was a member of the board of directors of the AIDS Action Council. ARCW COO Mike Gifford served on the board from 1997 to 2002. This participation engaged ARCW in federal government advocacy with significant influence in the development of the national AIDS policy agenda and its implementation by the federal government.

Congress enacted the Ryan White CARE Act in 1990 to improve the availability of care for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured people with HIV. The funding formulas in the legislation awarded significantly more AIDS funding to a few large cities hardest hit by the AIDS crisis—San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and others—and less funding to those with fewer AIDS cases.

When the legislation was up for reauthorization in 1994, ARCW examined the funding formulas and discovered that some states received up to $4,000 more per AIDS case than Wisconsin. As a member of the AIDS Action Council, ARCW urged a change in the funding formulas to achieve more equitable Ryan White funding per AIDS case throughout the country. Large AIDS service organizations (ASOs) from high-funded states, however, were in control of the Council and consistently opposed ARCW-recommended changes.

In its quest for equitable AIDS funding, ARCW organized the Campaign for Fairness, a national coalition of ASOs in 47 states that supported equitable funding. Representing the Campaign, ARCW leaders Doug Nelson and Mike Gifford made the case for equitable funding to Congress and the Clinton Administration. Two years of advocacy resulted in a Congressional victory for more equitable funding formulas. When President Clinton signed the Ryan White CARE Act in 1996, the new equitable formulas allocated millions more in AIDS funding for HIV services throughout the nation.

103rd Congress, 1993-1995

Physical

Digital
Physical Description: 2 digital files (105 MB) 
Scope and Content Note: Digitized sample of folder

104th Congress, 1995-1997

104th Congress, 1995-1997

106th Congress, 1997-1999

Background, 1990-1994

Background, 1990-1994

Subseries: Federal Housing, 1997-1999
Abstract: In 1997, ARCW led a national effort to restore housing funds for non-urban areas in the Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA) program. The formula was changed and the funds were restored and the improved bill was signed by President Clinton.

Housing Opportunities for People With AIDS (HOPWA), 1997

State of AIDS Forum, 1997

Subseries: Medicaid Expansion, 1994-1997
Biography/History: ARCW lobbied the federal Health Care Financing Administration to expand the Medicaid program to include low-income, newly diagnosed individuals with HIV disease. With costly new HIV treatments patients needed early medical intervention to avoid progression to AIDS, to remain healthy and to avoid intensive and costly AIDS treatments. By changing the Medicaid eligibility policy to eliminate the disability requirement and to expand coverage to all low income HIV patients, Medicaid would help to assure HIV patient access to essential care thus reducing progression to AIDS and treatments that would be costly for Medicaid.

ACRW and AIDS Action Council Advocacy, 1996-1997

Medicaid Background, 1994, 1996

Surveys of Health Care Access, 1997