In California, patients must provide written consent before their blood can be tested for HIV. This is in contrast to other screening tests for cholesterol and diabetes that do not need consent. To change this so that more people get HIV tests, the CA legislature passed a bill, 682, to make HIV screening a routine part of everyone’s medical exam. In as far as this takes paperwork out of the medical system, this bill makes sense, but this does make one wonder what the boundary is between “routine screening” and “mandatory screening”. The next time you go in for a physical (assuming the Governator signs the bill), you will likely get an AIDS test whether you want it or not.
Makes me think back to the Sell Vs US case.
Bill for HIV screening on Governor’s desk