$126 million national grant could help offset costs
By DMITRY RASHNITSOV
With one of the highest HIV infection rates in the United States, Florida’s department of public health has many programs in place to help those that cannot afford to pay for the costly medications to fight the disease. But due to budget cuts in the state government one of the programs is being severely reduced in its scope.
Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) ensures that underserved and uninsured individuals living with HIV/AIDS have access to life-saving medications, but now some of the hardest hit individuals will be put on a waitlist because the program simply does not have the funding to continue to support everyone.
About 18,000 people qualified for ADAP in Florida because they met the requirements of being at 400% or less of the Federal Poverty Level; uninsured or without adequate prescription coverage; and not confined to a hospital, nursing home, hospice, or correctional facility. 9,000 of those people live in South Florida. Beginning June 1, anyone who applies for this program will be put on a waitlist until someone leaves the program.
“There are some cases where medical exemptions will be granted,” wrote Shairi R. Turner, Florida Health Department Deputy Secretary for Health, in an interoffice memo.
Some of those exempt from the waiting list are people who meet all other ADAP requirements who are pregnant, children, post-partum women, patients who are on chemotherapy and those that also have hepatitis B infections.
The waitlists were necessary because Florida’s ADAP saw a jump of 25 percent in the number of people applying for the program in the last two years, Turner wrote.
Also starting August 1, Florida ADAP will reduce the number of antiretroviral drugs it approves for patients.
Florida joins 10 other states who have waiting lists and about 12 other states that are considering them.
“This is terrible news,” said Michael Rajner, a Fort Lauderdale HIV/AIDS activist. “We rely on the program for help with the drugs that keep us alive. Without it, I don’t know what people would do.”
National HIV/AIDS are urging President Barack Obama to use emergency funds to restore the ADAP programs all over the country for the roughly 1,140 people who are currently on waitlists.
“One possible source for these funds is the roughly $20 billion in unspent and unallocated funding for HHS (Health and Human Services) from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. A small portion of these funds re-directed to ADAPs could immediately resolve this crisis,” wrote AIDS Health Care Foundation President Michael Weinstein in a letter to the President.
According to the AHF, there are approximately 1.2 million people in the US living with HIV/AIDS today. ADAPs serve over 160,000 people, accounting for nearly one third of the people on AIDS treatment in the U.S.
“Maintaining a sustainable drug assistance program is a critical need in our state,” Turner wrote. “Additional costcontainment measures are carefully being considered and evaluated to ensure the most effective and proactive response during these challenging times.”
