Health care is the single most important issue for people living with HIV.  Positive Women's Network-USA  (PWN)  members, allies, and partners are  demanding affordable, comprehensive, high quality health care that works for our communities.

PWN is the premier national organization led by and for women and transgender people living with HIV. We advocate for universal health care, which means:

• Everyone can go to a doctor and get the treatments they need for free or at minimal cost.
• Everyone can access health care that is compassionate and high quality without facing discrimination.
• Health care is holistic – it includes  comprehensive  access to  mental,  dental, and reproductive  health services for people of all genders (including abortion!) as well as the services needed to support getting health care needs met.

We know there is a lot at stake this election cycle when it comes to health care for people living with HIV:

• The Covid-19 pandemic is yet another glaring example of the ways racism has shaped, and continues to corrupt, the U.S. healthcare system. We need a system-wide transformative shift to single payer health care that provides comprehensive coverage, regardless of race, gender identity, immigration status, or ability to pay. Yet the U.S. Congress has repeatedly failed to pass legislation that could overhaul our crumbling health care system. Time to prioritize people over profit.

• With the looming end to the public health emergency, pandemic-related protections that ensured folks had consistent, stable Medicaid coverage will be rolled back. This means approximately 15 million people across the U.S. could lose health insurance. The pain of the loss of coverage will be particularly acute in the twelve states, primarily in the U.S. South, that still stubbornly refuse to expand their Medicaid programs to cover more people with low incomes.  

• The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the case that first recognized abortion as a constitutionally protected right. Overturning Roe means has meant what over half of U.S. states have (or will soon) completely banned or severely restricted abortion. Tens of millions of people have been deprived of their bodily autonomy and control of their reproductive healthcare decisions.

• State legislatures across the country have introduced an unprecedented number of bills to undermine the rights, health, and safety of transgender people. These attacks on trans communities are another brutal reminder of how far we have to go to create a world where people of all genders can achieve emotional, mental, and physical wellness.

It is no accident that states implementing the most stringent voter suppression efforts are also enacting devastating anti-abortion and anti-transgender policies. The push to end abortion access, to invisibilize people of trans experience, and to decimate voting rights intentionally target the same folks, our folks – particularly Black, Indigenous and other people of color, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, people in rural areas, young people, undocumented people, and those having difficulty making ends meet. These attacks are, at their core, about maintaining the status quo: namely white supremacy, heteronormativity, cisnormativity, and capitalist exploitation.

The tactics of voter suppression and reproductive oppression show that the establishment is scared of our growing power. They know that, by denying us full and equal access to the polls, it’s harder for us to craft a world that recognizes our full human rights and bodily autonomy. But we will not be deterred. Together, we can build power, re-shape political will, and transform systems. Commit to vote to protect our health care!