CONTACT: (on site cell) Kate Krauss: (267) 979-3655
(Philadelphia) Asia Russell (215) 731-1844
(If you reach the ACT UP voice mail system, leave a message in box 9)

(Glenside, Pennsylvania) AIDS activists confronted George W. Bush today, disrupting his "Victory 2000" rally in Pennsylvania, one of the most hotly contested battlegrounds in the presidential election. The disruption comes just one day after new data reveal that nearly two-thirds of the 22,000 people with AIDS in Texas are denied access to life-extending drugs as a result of Bush's Texas Medicaid policies. The data are part of a federally funded study of the four states with the highest AIDS rates in the country. Texas fared worst according to the preliminary analysis leaked yesterday.

Chanting and blowing air horns, the activists interrupted the candidate during his speech. "I am terrified Bush will be elected our next president," said ACT UP member John Bell, a man living with AIDS. "Just living in Texas would put me at greater risk of death. That nightmare will be visited on this country and the rest of the world if Bush becomes our next president."

The study, conducted by UCSF researchers, also revealed that Texans on Medicaid are limited to only three drugs per month, while most people with AIDS and other chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are prescribed many more drugs than three drugs simultaneously.

Activists insist that a Bush presidency would be disastrous for people with AIDS in the United States and around the world, pointing to Bush's poorly-regarded record on AIDS prevention and treatment during his five years as governor of Texas, as well as his strong ties to pharmaceutical companies.

"This study proves Bush's indifference to the fate of people with AIDS in Texas. It is no wonder Bush has never said the word 'AIDS'," said ACT UP's Katie Krauss. "The governor was trying to keep this health crisis under wraps, cutting corners on Medicaid at the expense of low-income, sick and dying Texans."

Bush's health policies recently came under national scrutiny when a federal judge ruled Texas was not providing acceptable care for its 1.5 million poor children on Medicaid. Texas has the second highest rate of people with no health insurance in the country.

When citing Bush's Medicare prescription coverage plan, AIDS activists charge Bush with supporting drug companies and insurance firms instead of people with AIDS.

"Bush's Medicare plan is corporate welfare, pure and simple," said Laura McTighe of ACT UP. "The Bush plan would reward HMOs for creating a complicated scheme of reimbursement and coverage that will allow drug companies to keep prices high, forcing taxpayers to subsidize the mammoth profits of the pharmaceutical industry."

Worldwide, 90 per cent of the 35 million people with HIV have no access to AIDS drugs. ACT UP members reported that a Bush Administration would reverse the recent White House Executive Order formalizing a generic AIDS drug access policy for the sub-Saharan Africa, where 15-25% of the population is infected, yet have no access to affordable HIV drugs. Almost all of Africa's 23 million people with HIV will die within 12 years without medicine.

"AIDS decimates countries around the globe due to drug company greed," said Bob Kahn of ACT UP. "Bush has an appalling record in his own backyard. Clearly the lives of millions of destitute people with AIDS are inconsequential to him and his industry cronies. This kind of compassion we don't need."

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