Aging HIV Population Confronts High Drug Costs, Taxes Medicare

The first generation of AIDS crisis survivors is about to turn 65 and join the Medicare population, putting pressure on federal programs and spotlighting high prescription drug prices.

Over the next two decades, more than 600,000 people living with diagnosed HIV/AIDS will become eligible for Medicare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These individuals will not only be facing a disease that many expected to kill them years ago, but conditions that come with aging, and a complicated insurance system with high prices for the drugs they need to stay alive.

Medicare, too, could see financial problems ...