Treatment successes draining ADAP resources
Treatment successes draining ADAP resources
Shortfalls predicted despite more funding
Waiting lists and denied coverage of protease inhibitors may become more common in the near future as AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs) feel the impact of increased demand due to the good news about combination treatment, activists told lawmakers in June.
During a briefing on Capital Hill on June 9, members of the ADAP Working Group and AIDS experts highlighted the crisis that many programs face despite recent increased federal funding.
"Although the Congress and many state leaders have responded by committing new funding to meeting increase demands, some ADAPs are still limiting their programs in ways that are unethical, arbitrary, and threatening to the lives of people who must depend on this program," said Martin Delaney, founding director of Project Inform, a San Francisco-based advocacy organization.
ADAPs function as joint federal and state programs that cover the cost of HIV medications for uninsured and underinsured patients. The ADAP Working Group released budget projections that estimate state programs will face funding shortfalls that could further reduce access even further. ADAP officials estimate that the programs will need, at minimum, an increase of $175 million in federal funding for fiscal year 1999 - an additional $75 million above the president's ADAP budget request.
Since 1996, 30 of 52 ADAPs have closed new enrollment, limited access to protease inhibitors, or had budget shortfalls, officials noted. The projected funding needs are based on factors including:
· a 38% increase in the number of patients using ADAPs since July 1996;
· an estimated 1,000 new patients expected to seek ADAP access each month;
· increases in program expenses, with 15 states reporting increases greater than 50%.
Overall, 23 states have had to deny patient access or curtail ADAP services prior to the start of the new fiscal year.
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