Democratic South Florida lawmakers and health care advocates on Wednesday denounced the Florida Health Department’s decision to reduce the number of Floridians eligible for the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, a move they say leaves tens of thousands of people without access to lifesaving drugs.
State officials said the action is being taken to prevent a shortfall of more than $120 million in the statewide prescription medication program for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. They said the changes in income eligibility requirements are driven by the failure of Congress last year to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
“It’s a really, really serious issue," Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo told legislators in Tallahassee last week.
U.S. Reps Lois Frankel, D-Boca Raton, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, along with the health care advocates, on Wednesday called Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and Ladapo to help pay the costs of providing the critical drugs to HIV/AIDS patients.
“This is a lifeline that provides critical financial assistance to low-income Floridians living with HIV and AIDS,” said Wasserman Schultz. “It helps ensure that they can afford their prescriptions and their health insurance.”
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Wasserman Schultz said the state’s top health officials made their decision without public input in “a reckless scheme to destroy a critical component of Florida's healthcare safety net.”
Frankel said the state action will cut off more than half of the current enrollees in the program, "many with very little notice and few alternatives."
The lawmakers and advocates said the state’s decision, which takes effect March 1, affects more than 30,000 people with HIV/AIDS who rely on the program. Half may become ineligible under the new income rules.
In a letter to DeSantis and Ladapo, the lawmakers pressed them to reverse their decision, saying failure to do so "will increase health care costs across Florida by leading to new HIV transmissions."
The rate of HIV/AIDS in Florida is among the highest in the nation.
“ This is not only morally wrong, it's financially reckless," Carl Baloney Jr., President and CEO of AIDS United, told reporters during the virtual news conference.
"HIV is a chronic condition that we know how to treat, and when we effectively manage HIV with medicines our patients live. productive lives and the public is protected from new infections," Dr. Elizabeth Sherman, an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Nova Southeastern University, told reporters.
Speaking at the virtual news conference Wednesday, Michael Rajner said he was first diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1995 and has been enrolled in the state program for HIV medication for several decades. He warns tens of thousands of people rely on the state program to stay alive.
" We will have some people die, and we're also getting ready to invite a new type of hurricane into Florida — a huge new wave of new HIV cases — if we don't get this under control and get rid of the anxiety and the fear that people are filled with," he said.
