US may lift ban..

[indianheart 2]

Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would not become a "public charge."

That might be difficult, no?

Yes, but fair is fair.

Just because the immigrant's sponsor is able to show s/he makes a certain amount over the poverty line doesn't mean said sponsor will be able to afford health insurance or other coverage for illnesses. Medications alone for HIV or AIDS can be well over $1000 a month. Necessary lab tests can easily run $3-$5000 a year. That amount is often more than the sponsor is required to show that s/he makes. In many states, legal immigrants are eligible for Medicaid as soon as they get here. The result is that we're paying for health coverage for many medical problems (not just HIV) that they enter the country with. I certainly don't think we should discriminate against people with one particular disease, but I wonder if the sponsor should be able to prove they can purchase health insurance for the person they sponsor?

and a person financial status can always change and then there is a burden to the tax payers...HIV come with a long list of ailment because of the weakened immune system including types of cancer...huge expences for treatment

[kerewin21 2]

Well, banning someone with active TB makes a lot more sense than banning someone with HIV. You can transmit TB just by being in the same room with someone with an active infection; not so for HIV. And there are plenty of other diseases that cost as much as or more than HIV in many cases: some cancers, diabetes, heart disease, etc. It just doesn't make sense to only ban one disease.

I do however think that people who come as LPRs should have to purchase their own health insurance and not receive services from free care or Medicaid. I can't tell you how many people show up at my clinic every week having received absolutely no medical care for years and years in their countries. By the time they show up their diseases have had major consequences that are costly to take care of. So beyond the preventive care they never got (pap smears, colonoscopies, mammograms, immunizations, dental care, eye care) there are other problems to deal with and they have to see cardiologists and have heart studies and kidney doctors and so on.

I don't begrudge anyone medical care, but I'm not sure my tax dollars should be paying for medical care for somebody who hasn't worked and paid taxes him or herself.

[LaGreenEyes 0]

The ban will stay in place it is not going to be lifted and rightfully so! IT is African problem and should be quarantined and dealt with there, and I do not know one person on here that would open their doors up or want to share and live with that disease without not knowing about it at first! And would you not know it the liberal loser John Kerry is charging ahead for this bill, and he wondered why he got beat in 04 by GW Bush!

WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-decade ban on people with HIV visiting or immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas of the world.

The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive people.

Even China, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., recently changed that policy, deciding it was "time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction" to people with HIV.

"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease," Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it come to applying for visas, he said.

Kerry and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are trying to repeal the ban, first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993. The two have attached their measure to legislation — which the Senate may pass this week — that would provide $50 billion over the next five years to fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas.

Foreign citizens, students and tourists can apply for a difficult-to-obtain special waiver for short-term visits, but an HIV-positive person has little chance of obtaining permanent residency.

Under current law, HIV is the only medical condition explicitly listed under immigration law. The Kerry-Smith provision would make HIV equivalent to other communicable diseases where medical and public health experts at the Health and Human Services Department — not consular officials at U.S. embassies — determine eligibility for admission.

Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would not become a "public charge."

The HIV ban was "adopted during a time of widespread fear and ignorance about the HIV virus," said Allison Herwitt, legislative director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian civil rights group.

Among the consequences, experts on HIV and AIDS who are themselves infected have been unable to attend conferences in the U.S. Students and refugees in the country who may be at risk of infection have been reluctant to seek testing or treatment.

"Health care professionals, researchers and other exceptionally talented people have been blocked from the United States," some 160 health and AIDS groups said recently in a letter urging Congress to end the current policy. "Since 1993, the International Conference on AIDS has not been held on U.S. soil due to this policy."

Herwitt said some HIV-positive people seeking visas lie on their applications and then don't bring their medications. "It's not only wrongheaded and discriminatory, but can also cause people to not tell the truth."

Both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton sought to ease the policy and in 2006 the current President Bush asked the Homeland Security Department to streamline the waiver process. Congress so far has not gone along.

There's still opposition.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., may offer an amendment to eliminate the Kerry-Smith provision from the Senate bill. Sessions cited Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new immigrants coming in under the relaxed policy could cost the government more than $80 million over a 10-year period. "Most people just don't want to talk about that."

Sessions said the Health and Human Services Department already has considerable flexibility to grant entry visas.

The measure would offset the costs of new immigrants by raising the price of applying for a visitor's visa by $1 for three years and then $2 for the next five years.

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

zqt is a God-fearing American. She's no troll!

[MrsCat 6]

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

Not me - I like zqt - he reminds me of the difference between sanity and being delusional.

[LaGreenEyes 0]

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

Not me - I like zqt - he reminds me of the difference between sanity and being delusional.

Seems to like to stir the pot and really P*#&$ people off. Sanity?? Questionable.. saying that HIV is Africa's problem and should be quarantined there? more paranoid racist I think. In another post saying that basically if a 10 year old said she was raped she was lying...yeah that's sane.

Glad that most of the rest of us are insane then....

[MrsCat 6]

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

Not me - I like zqt - he reminds me of the difference between sanity and being delusional.

Seems to like to stir the pot and really P*#&$ people off. Sanity?? Questionable.. saying that HIV is Africa's problem and should be quarantined there? more paranoid racist I think. In another post saying that basically if a 10 year old said she was raped she was lying...yeah that's sane.

Glad that most of the rest of us are insane then....

That's not what I was saying

zqt's statements = delusional

everyone else's = sane

reading zqt's statements reminds me that there are delusional people out there who believe things completely contrary to what I think.

[LaGreenEyes 0]

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

Not me - I like zqt - he reminds me of the difference between sanity and being delusional.

Seems to like to stir the pot and really P*#&$ people off. Sanity?? Questionable.. saying that HIV is Africa's problem and should be quarantined there? more paranoid racist I think. In another post saying that basically if a 10 year old said she was raped she was lying...yeah that's sane.

Glad that most of the rest of us are insane then....

That's not what I was saying

zqt's statements = delusional

everyone else's = sane

reading zqt's statements reminds me that there are delusional people out there who believe things completely contrary to what I think.

Gotcha!

I've never been good at reading sarcasm.. to me

[MrsCat 6]

Is there anyone else here that thinks that this person is a troll?

Not me - I like zqt - he reminds me of the difference between sanity and being delusional.

Seems to like to stir the pot and really P*#&$ people off. Sanity?? Questionable.. saying that HIV is Africa's problem and should be quarantined there? more paranoid racist I think. In another post saying that basically if a 10 year old said she was raped she was lying...yeah that's sane.

Glad that most of the rest of us are insane then....

That's not what I was saying

zqt's statements = delusional

everyone else's = sane

reading zqt's statements reminds me that there are delusional people out there who believe things completely contrary to what I think.

Gotcha!

I've never been good at reading sarcasm.. to me

No probs, I should have put some kinda face. I hear sarcasm very well in my mind - never comes out on paper so well. If only you could have heard how I sounded in my mind

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

So why do you ladies hate America so much?

[MrsCat 6]

So why do you ladies hate America so much?

Clearly because they're letting gays marry, AIDS patients enter the country willynilly and women have abortions without consent of their priest. How could anyone like this place?!

*sarcastic tone*

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

:o

[LaGreenEyes 0]

So why do you ladies hate America so much?

Not to mention we let people in our country that speak languages other than English...Oh and we wear pants, cut our hair, and may even read Harry Potter books.