Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting list continues to grow
The number of HIV-positive Floridians on the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program waiting list stands at a little over 1,200 people, according to the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (.pdf), known as NASTAD.
Pic via dbmathews.com
The AIDS Drug Assistance Program, known as ADAP, is a federally funded nationwide payer of last resort for people who cannot afford their HIV/AIDS medications. The program has been in a funding crisis since 2010, which prompted many states, including Florida, to implement cost containment measures such as waiting lists.
Florida Bureau of HIV/AIDS data released in early January shows that over 50 percent of those on the ADAP waiting list live in Broward and Miami-Dade counties (.pdf).
According to NASTAD data released Friday, more than 4,770 people living with HIV in 12 states are on ADAP waiting lists. Florida now has 25 percent of those Americans, the second longest list after Georgia.
The most recent update of the National ADAP Monitoring Project (.pdf), issued three weeks ago, explains that through 2011 and "as a result of the nation's continued economic crisis, more Americans living with HIV are relying on public health safety net programs, including ADAP, as a vital resource for medications."
The Monitoring Project warns that "the demand for ADAP has not dwindled and ADAP waiting lists will likely plateau and grow again in the coming months," adding that even ADAPs "without any cost-containment measures currently in place, as a result of inadequate federal and state funding are beginning to anticipate the need for cost-containment measures, and waiting lists" in 2012.
This has been the case in Florida, where the Department of Health announced in early December that the state's waiting list, which had been the largest in the U.S. through 2011, dropped to a little more than 800 individuals.
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