AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a leading advocate for AIDS patients, announced it has launched a statewide media campaign calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature in the state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program, or ADAP, which helps cover HIV medication for thousands of Floridians.
The media campaign unveiled Monday to raise public awareness about the ADAP funding runs through mid-May on cable television, radio, digital, and print. It urges Floridians to contact DeSantis at (850) 717-9337 and state lawmakers to urge full restoration of ADAP.
DeSantis signed legislation last month to provide stopgap funding mitigating cuts to ADAP that were imposed last month. The bill (HB 697) included $31 million to restore cuts to ADAP through June 30, the end of the fiscal year.
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"This program works. It keeps people alive, it prevents new HIV cases, and it pays for itself. There is no justification for dismantling it," said Esteban Wood, AHF Director of Advocacy, Legislative Affairs & Community Engagement, in a statement on Tuesday.
"The Legislature has already shown this is not a partisan issue," Wood said. "Now we need permanent restoration. Twelve thousand Floridians cannot afford to wait."
The bill DeSantis signed into law restored ADAP eligibility to more than 11,000 people — until the Legislature passes a budget. This year, the House and Senate ended their regular session in a stalemate over budget talks and will have to return to the Capitol to pass a spending plan.
In January the Florida Department of Health, citing a $120 million shortfall caused by federal funding cuts, stated they would be dropping the coverage threshold from 400% of the poverty level, a yearly income of $62,600, to 130% of the poverty level, or $20,345.
Those cuts took effect March 1, kicking thousands of Floridians who rely on ADAP to access HIV medication off the program.
ADAP provides lifesaving HIV medication and insurance premium assistance to Floridians who cannot otherwise afford treatment, said the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
A bipartisan group of legislators, including Smith, Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, and House bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Kincart Johnson, R-Lakeland, worked for weeks to come up with an emergency solution.
