AIDS Action Calls for Private and Public Groups to End ADAP Crisis

AIDS Action Calls for Private and Public Groups to End ADAP Crisis. AIDS Action is working with Congress to help end a shortfall in the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) that has developed as a result of the recession and growth in the number of people living with HIV who need assistance. Recently, the Administration found funding to eliminate waiting lists in the short term by reallocating $25 million until the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2010.

This amount of funding will not be sufficient to allow states to reverse cost containment measures that have been put in place such as reduced formulary, reduced eligibility, and closed enrollments. These measures place undue burden on those living with HIV and may result in some HIV-positive people having no access to needed life-saving drugs. The solution to the problem requires the federal government, States, private philanthropic and pharmaceutical partners and community organizations to work together to create a structural solution that bridges the time between now and 2014 when new Medicaid provisions become available and provide greater relief.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has been a long time advocate on behalf of people living with HIV. Since becoming Speaker, Representative Pelosi has successfully increased funding for the Ryan White CARE Act, which includes ADAP, by $230 million (and is set to increase funding for ADAP alone by $50 million in FY2011) at a time when funding for many other health programs is declining. She additionally worked to reauthorize the Ryan White CARE Act, end the ban on federal funding for syringe exchange, end travel restrictions that kept people living with HIV from entering the country and increase funding for HIV/AIDS research.

AIDS Action is concerned that tactics from some in the community to target Speaker Pelosi are an ineffective technique and unresponsive to solving the problem. Such tactics fail to advance an integrated structural solution to the ADAP crisis and will become a distraction from finding funding for ADAP from public and private sources. AIDS Action will therefore work together with our professional colleagues, in a bipartisan manner in the House, Senate and with the Administration to strengthen the program and ensure that waiting lists and other cost containments measures are fully eliminated and calls on others to do the same.