The Kaiser Foundation states in the fact sheet ''U.S. Federal Funding for HIV/AIDS: The FY 2007 Budget Request'' (February 2006) that in FY 2007 federal government spending for domestic and global HIV-related activities totaled $22.8 billion--$18.9 billion for domestic programs and $3.9 billion for global initiatives and activities. Even though federal funding has increased significantly throughout the course of the epidemic and the 2007 federal budget represented an 8.3% increase over 2006, it nonetheless represented less than 1% of the overall federal budget. In FY 2007 federal spending for HIV/AIDS care alone, as opposed to funds designated for cash and housing assistance research and prevention, totaled $13.2 billion. Most of the funding was for Medicaid and Medicare programs.

HIV/AIDS-related costs are expected to increase in response to the rising costs of hospitalization, home care, insurance premiums and copayments, physician services, and pharmaceutical drugs. In 2000 certain drugs (including didanosine and ritonavir) rose substantially in price. Growing concern about rising drug prices led to a self-imposed price freeze by some manufacturers in 2002. However, in February 2003 Roche Pharmaceuticals announced that the price for its formulation of enfuvirtide, at the time the most expensive AIDS treatment on the market, would more than double in Europe. Despite the rising cost of drug treatment, at the 2005 United Nations World Summit the world's leaders pledged to try to achieve universal access to treatment by 2010.

However, some HIV/AIDS care-related expenses have actually been reduced by relocating services from the hospital to a variety of outpatient settings. Examples of cost-saving services include outpatient transfusions and outpatient treatment for opportunistic infections such as Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia and cryptococcal meningitis. Increased volunteer-based social service programs that enable patients to be cared for at home can also prevent expensive hospital stays.

Federal government spending on HIV-related care and activities has increased steadily since 1985, when about $2 million was spent. In ''U.S. Federal Funding for HIV/AIDS,'' the Kaiser Foundation explains that in FY 2007, besides HIV-related spending for medical care, government costs included research ($2.6 billion), prevention ($956 million), and cash and housing assistance ($2.1 billion), which is provided through the Social Security Administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

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