@groovedware:
"why should your irresponsibility for your own health be a burden on Medicare", are there no prisons? are there no work houses?
Just to set the recotd straight, keeping someone in jail is MUCH more expensive to the system than jut providing their medical needs. Not only that, but I can tell you first hand that jail is definitely NOT a place you want to be when you're HIV+, especially since they are not exactly all that with it with medications in jail. I happen to be lucky enough to have survived 12 months of such an ordeal, without somehow developping a resistancy to the medication.
The other question that comes to my mind is do you mean to say that there should be no provisions to make accomedations to subsidize medical coverage for HIV meds, which easily run more than $3000/month? Most people don't even make that much in a month before taxes, yet alone being able to pay for rent, food, etc. on top of the cost of the medication.
You also seem to have the assumption that everyone who is infected with HIV got infected as the result of negligence. This is simply not the case. The whole point of this article was to establish that there is too much stigma surrounding the subject of HIV, since it's a proven fact that in the last 14 years or so, there has been not one case of HIV transmission (even through unprotected sex) when the person has been on HIV meds and maintained an undetectable viral load.
There's much more to consider than just negligence as well. As I have mentioned in other forum posts, my HIV infection was definitely NOT the result of my negligence. In fact, I actually declined sex with the man who infected me several times before it was physically forced upon me anyway, despite my refusal. While it may be true that a lot of HIV infections are the result of negligence, it is not a fair assumption to just assume that everyone who is infected with HIV is infected because of some kind of negligence on their part. At this day and age, we should be breaking down that kind of barrier, stigma, and incorrect way of thinking, rather than promoting it.