Sequester could knock more than 500 Georgians off AIDS Drug Assistance Program
Thanks to the 5.3 percent across-the-board cut to most non-defense discretionary federal programs known as the "sequester," as many as 15,000 Americans will lose access to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), according to a recent report released by amFAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research.
The sequester is the result of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which was initially aimed at reducing the federal deficit. After a bipartisan deficit reduction committee failed to propose a plan to reduce the deficit by the March 1 deadline, automatic budget cuts were imposed to the tune of $1.2 trillion.
Particularly hard hit are HIV/AIDS advocacy, research and prevention efforts, which are set to lose out on millions in funding over the next decade if the sequester holds, according to amFAR.
HIV/AIDS advocates are taking to Twitter today to call on President Obama to end the waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).
According to Georgia Equality, the state's largest LGBT rights advocacy organization, Georgia has some 1,700 low-income people on the state's waiting list to receive life-saving medications. The Georgia Department of Public Health says that ADAP must be the last resort for individuals with HIV/AIDS, meaning to qualify for funds, a patient must not have health insurance or receive other state or federal health benefits that could pay for treatment.
Tweeters are asked to submit specially tagged messages to the official Twitter account for the White House, on the hour, every hour today.
Georgia’s HIV Unit hopes to eliminate the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program’s waiting list if it can receive a $3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention this fall.
Some 1,718 Georgians were on the waiting list for ADAP as of Aug. 4, according to the ADAP Advocacy Association. The program helps people who are uninsured or underinsured pay for life-saving HIV medications.
Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, state commissioner of the Department of Public Health, which oversees the HIV Unit, is quick to point out that the list is not a “death sentence,” as 99 percent of people on the list are receiving needed medication through assistance from pharmaceutical companies.