The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 75/No. 23      June 13, 2011

 
U.S. states cut funding
for AIDS medications
 
BY HARRY D’AGOSTINO  
At the same time that many workers are losing their health insurance through layoffs or cuts to benefits by employers, state governments are reducing access to medications for those with HIV.

Nearly 174,000 people in the United States receive antiretroviral drugs through AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs). The programs cover low-income patients who cannot afford the drugs and don’t have insurance that covers these medications.

Many states are chopping those who are eligible by lowering the income threshold that qualifies. Illinois is set to cut eligibility from 500 percent of the federal poverty line ($54,450 a year) to 300 percent ($32,670 dollars). Officials in Florida are considering halving the state’s income limit to $21,780 a year. Those who lack insurance and have to buy AIDS medications out of pocket spend an estimated $18,000 annually.

The state of Georgia has cut its funding for AIDS drug assistance by $100,000. Virginia has implemented medical criteria that judges some people “too healthy” to receive subsidies for antiretroviral drugs. Thomas Decker, for example, was laid off from a print shop, bought insurance through COBRA as long as he could, and then turned to Virginia ADAP. He lost his subsidies because his immune system improved!

In Cuba, where workers and farmers made a revolution and replaced the wealthy families in power, working people have access to expensive antiretrovirals without charge. Although Caribbean countries have a high rate of AIDS, Cuba’s infection rate is among the lowest in the world, and only a sixth that of the rate in the United States.  
 
 
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