Mandatory Periodic HIV testing?

Should periodic testing for HIV become mandatory for everyone?

Inspired by this question:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

Will the states or feds pay for this, or will individuals have to pay? What about those without insurance?

Actually far more medical problems can be linked to diet and exercise. Should we implement a system of legally mandatory dietary controls?

Most people are well aware of AIDS and other STDs, and most people have at least some knowledge of safe sex practices.

What's causing STDs to spread is the lack of real education regarding safe sex practices (abstinence-only education in schools) and the easy willingness on the part of large numbers of people to think the rules don't apply to them.

Even if we required everyone to get periodic STD evaluations, which seems very problematic in free societies, what then? Would you rely completely on people's good will to be responsible and not pass it on. Would their results be made public, or would their privacy be respected?

1 in 4 Americans has an STD. Simply practicing safe sex every time would drastically reduce this number, but people think that they are somehow immune to the odds.

Maybe...the correct response to an epidemic would require this option at some point. So, despite my very strong libertarian impulses, I am going to have to say yes to mandatory, random, anonymous testing for all STDs.

Notice my (important) qualifications.

I would further say that "mandatory" means everyone receiving public health care (including children and seniors, medicare/medicaid), everyone receiving or giving blood, military and public service of every kind, everyone in the criminal system, and everyone working for the healthcare system.

If we go to public health care across the board, test everyone.

No, current practice has reduced transmission significantly, and there are protocols for mandatory testing, such as accidental needle sticks or bodily fluid exposure. The only way I would support such testing is if the law requiring it also prohibited insurance companies from denying coverage based on the results of such involuntary testing, and guaranteeing their confidentiality.