History
In the early 1980s, the United States was confronted by an epidemic of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This virus, left untreated, progresses to a disease called the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) that severely hampers the body's ability to ward off illness and infection.
Congress created the Ryan White CARE Act in 1990 in response to calls for assistance from a number of urban public hospitals that were struggling financially from uncompensated care provided to individuals dying of AIDS. The Act was named for Ryan White, a teenager who contracted HIV through a blood transfusion and died after an eight-year struggle with the disease. The Ryan White CARE Act is a series of grant programs that fund treatment services for people with HIV/AIDS who are either uninsured or underinsured; it is not a health insurance program like Medicaid or Medicare.
This program supports outpatient HIV early intervention services for low-income, medically underserved people in existing primary care systems. Medical, educational, and psychosocial services are designed to prevent the further spread of HIV/AIDS, delay the onset of illness, facilitate access to services, and provide psychosocial support to people with HIV/AIDS.