Changes to US Immigration Policy Regarding HIV Status?

The Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS), which is a American "think tank", issued a report advising to relax restrictions on immigration policies for people infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) which causes Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

According to this 16 page report, the current US policy (and law) is to deny the admission of immigrants and non-immigrants with HIV infection. This policy is based on early 1980's fears and lack of understanding of the emerging HIV epidemic. Furthermore, this report concludes that current US policy represents one of the most stringent migrant pre-departure screening approaches in the world and suggests that this approach is obsolete and discriminatory.

One basis for these conclusions does ring of truth in that this is inconsistent with the United State's stated goals of fighting the HIV epidemic.

However, I do not see this report addressing the additional cost to American taxpayers for picking up the burden of treating non-citizens with HIV in an environment where US HIV providers already find it difficult to receive adequate compensation for taking care of HIV patients. Many of the patients in the United States, who have HIV, are indigent thus relying entirely on programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, or specialized funding such as the Ryan White act. New immigrants, with HIV, will likely tax these systems.

I would agree that changes to our current policy are in order, as this is fair. However, I hope that the policy makers keep in mind that this can cause additional stress to the care of HIV patients who are already here.