Learn About Policy
Our policy platforms and advocacy strategies seek to elevate health and social justice issues and remove barriers to community health and well-being. Our advocacy is comprehensive; but we organize around three overarching principles:
An ounce of prevention
Harlem United believes preventive health is the foundation of all healthcare. We support a vigorous scale-up of HIV screening complemented by universal access to care and treatment.
Primary Care + Public Health = Community Health
Harlem United strives to eliminate all disparities in healthcare for communities of color, low-incomes communities and individuals living with more than one chronic condition.
Housing is healthcare
Housing is healthcare. Employing the Housing First Model, Harlem United supports expansive, and affordable, housing for all.
Specific Policy Issues
Several recent “game changers” continue to evolve the healthcare landscape in New York City, State and across the United States, such as: The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the execution of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, the redesign of New York State’s Medicaid program, the extension of Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act, the shift from fee-for-service to managed care and other care coordination modalities.
These are coupled with similar “game changers” in our knowledge of HIV, including biomedical advances such as the FDA’s approval of Truvada as Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), the conceptualization of the treatment cascade, the knowledge that suppressed viral load reduces transmission, at the same time as it establishes a strategic framework to provide optimum health and quality of life for individuals with multiple chronic conditions.
Our issues span a range of topics. Here are just a few:
- HIV prevention and testing
- Access to Hepatitis C care and services
- LGBT Health
- Support for the Ryan White Care Act
- Expanded eligibility for city housing program HASA
- 30% Rent Cap
- Supportive housing – NY/NY IV
