Converting 'moral entitlements' into life-long AIDS treatment commitments

Dec 5 2012

"Many currently believe that U.S. domestic entitlements are too large, but disregard the fact that the PEPFAR program has created a new class of moral entitlements overseas -- in the form of four million and counting people receiving U.S.-supported life-sustaining AIDS treatment in low- and middle-income countries around the world," Mead Over, a senior fellow at the CGD, writes in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog. He continues, "But I think the U.S. has just as much fiduciary and moral responsibility to anticipate and plan for its current and future AIDS treatment entitlements overseas as it does for its much larger Social Security and Medicare entitlements at home," and adds, "Moving forward, I suggest that the U.S. should figure out how to convert the moral entitlements it has already granted into credible long-term enforceable commitments which are more analogous to the commitments it makes to Social Security beneficiaries in the U.S." (11/30).