One of the state’s foremost HIV/AIDS public health officials has told a panel of state lawmakers Wednesday that the state’s health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, Kynect, is helping patients who have the virus.
Despite gains in treating the virus, it still disproportionately affects African-Americans and Hispanics.
According to data from the Kentucky Department for Public Health, African-Americans make up 38 percent of newly diagnosed HIV cases despite representing only eight percent of the state population.
Kraig Humbaugh, senior deputy commissioner for the department, told members of the Joint Committee on Health and Welfare that those figures mirror a national trend. His only explanation for the difference lies in the risk factors listed by the data.
“The number one is men who have sex with men, unprotected sex, but you could see also that’s followed by folks who are IV-drug use, and also folks who have unprotected heterosexual sex,” Humbaugh said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, African-American males suffer from “limited access to and use of quality health care, lower income and educational attainment, and higher rates of unemployment and incarceration,” which contributes to the higher rate nationally.
