HIV Digest	HIV Digest Archive

At a time when the Bush administration has cut taxes for the country's multi-millionaires, some US patients are being denied access to anti-retroviral treatment. Ten states currently have waiting lists for the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs that provide medication to low-income HIV/AIDS patients with little or no insurance who do not qualify under Medicaid.

Nationwide, some 700 people are now on ADAP waiting lists. Because people on ADAP rolls are living longer, fewer program slots are opening due to deaths. Although ADAP is federally supported, funding has not kept pace with the increase in patients, and budget deficits have rendered many states incapable of augmenting ADAP funds. Federal funds for 2004 are $793 million, a rise from this year's $714, but below the $928 million experts estimate is needed.

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West Virginia (23 people on the waiting list), Kentucky (130), Alabama (141), North Carolina (100), Colorado (130), Indiana (47), Nebraska (30), Oregon (24), South Dakota (49) and Montana (1) are the states that have waiting lists. [All except Oregon are states carried by Mr. Bush in the 2000 election.] Five more states have imposed limits on the number of patients ADAP could serve, meaning they too will soon have waiting lists.

Some 850,000-950,000 people in the United States have HIV/AIDS, the largest number of cases in this country since the epidemic began, according to a December CDC report.

Editor's Note: from Newsday