A proposed law that would have required hospitals to offer optional HIV tests to all patients getting emergency room blood tests in California hospitals was vetoed by the governor today.
California Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 521, authored by Assemblyman Adrin Nazaria, D-Van Nuys.
That was blasted by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which cited federal studies that recommend every adult be tested for HIV and AIDS at least once in their adult life.
In his veto statement, Brown said the demographics of people getting blood tests in emergency rooms “does not match the demographics of the population at risk for HIV exposure.”
And he said hospitals are not appropriately staffed to offer AIDS counseling to persons who might test positive for HIV.
“Limited resources would be better spent supporting outreach and education activities by existing providers, which have the staff and training for HIV testing and follow-up care,” the governor wrote.
In Hollywood, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said it was disappointed.
“Pragmatic public health care legislation would have gone a long way to help California address the largely-unmet” need to test adults for HIV, the virus that causes the serious AIDS disease, the AHF said in a statement.
AHF said there are 5,000 new HIV infections every year in California, and 70 percent of the people in the United States with HIV have not had medicine yet to suppress the onset of AIDS.
