Health insurers in California will be required to cover the cost of HIV screening for every patient who wants such a test, under a bill signed into law by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The new law is expected to make screening more prevalent and eventually cut the spread of AIDS as more people become aware that they have the virus that causes the disease. The bill makes California the first state in the country to mandate such a policy.
Currently doctors have to justify to insurance companies why they conduct the 30 dollar screening tests, usually by issuing a primary diagnosis that the patient may have AIDS.
"This kind of test should be as routine as a cholesterol or blood pressure test," said Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, the author of the bill. "It should be a part of basic preventative health care. This legislation will set the standard throughout the nation by making HIV screening a routine part of ordinary preventive health care."
According to the California Office of AIDS some 40,000 people in California who are infected with HIV are unaware they have the disease. The law would guarantee coverage for the routine testing of 22.19 million people, according to the academic California Health Benefits Review Program.
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