ADAP Watch List Updates November 2011

[leatherman]

ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of November 3, 2011
6,489 individuals in 12 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Alabama	44	+16
Florida	3,260	-26
Georgia	1,415	-9
Idaho	2	-5
Louisiana**	489	-217
Montana	8	+5
Nebraska	3	+2
North Carolina	60	+14
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	60	+14
Utah	31	+1
Virginia	1,091	+13

ADAP Nov. 3rd Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[vaguesbleues]

Ugh...just the presence of these Waiting Lists makes my blood boil.  Not at you, but at the fact that we have individuals who NEED medications yet are being denied these life-saving therapies.  Makes me wanna go up the road a bit and have a nice, sit-down chat with the CEO of Gilead. 

[edfu]

The ADAP situation in Ohio deserves more attention here, even though it's listed above as having 0 on a waiting list. 

It's 0 only because a judge has issued a temporary restraining order blocking new rules for the state's ADAP program from taking effect Nov. 4. 

The new rules contain medical and financial qualifications that would make Ohio's program the worst in the country.  If you have more than 200 T-cells (yes, that's two hundred), you would be ineligible.  If you have an annual income more than $11,000 (yes, that's eleven thousand), you would be ineligible. 

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ahf-aids-patients-file-ohio-lawsuit-to-halt-illegal-restrictions-on-aids-drug-access-2011-11-03

Of course, this is in a state under Republican (surprised?) Gov. John Kasich, whose anti-union regulations will be voted upon tomorrow in a statewide referendum.   

[Jody]

Disgraceful is the mildest word to describe our current situation and yet we know money is always found for several wars (in which the perceived enemy will just wait for us to leave and wreak havoc).  Waste, mismanagement, the inability or lack of desire to collect a FAIR TAX from all Americans and to dole it out fairly and equitably are some of the issues driving large middle class support for the protestors at Occupy Wall Street movements nationwide.  We have witnessed massive and often violent uprisings in other parts of the globe by folks beyond frustration over their own tragic situations, due to rampant theft and corruption by "elected" officials who rarely get convicted or tried (Saadam and Khadaffy aside).

So ADAP, SS, disability, Medicare and Medicaid, aid to education, mass transit, infrastructure repair and the like are cut drastically but the sacred cows go untouched, fill in the blanks as to what they are.  Massive tax cuts for the wealthiest, who could pay another five or ten percent and not miss it, tax abatements, tax loopholes, tax shelters and all sorts of other gimmicks the wealthy and powerful and their lawyers make legal for their own benefit are legendary by now.

Keep on truckin' all you folks and it is good of our Leatheman to keep up posted on ADAP and insurance issues, our lifeline.  When I qualified by income I had the benefit of ADAP for many years but lost it last year in New York.  So now I pay extra (considerably) from each paycheck for the private insurance to kick in for medications.  And I actually consider myself amongst the lucky ones, I still work, am reasonably healthy and cannot complain, but at such a time that the premiums become so high as to be unaffordable, then I've got a problem, like many of my fellow Americans, living in the only industrialized nation on earth without universal health care.   

Jody

[leatherman]

If you have more than 200 T-cells (yes, that's two hundred), you would be ineligible.

good lord! what happens when you reach 205? Do you get dropped from ADAP?!?

as always by following the money, it's easy to imagine that if Ohio doesn't bother treating clients until they reach 200, they can probably just about guarantee the hospitals more money as they'll probably be treating sicker patients. Of course, by not treating people until they're at that level also means that more people will be less likely to pull out and could possibly die - and that'll be a huge treatment money-saver  argh!

[leatherman]

ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of November 10, 2011
6,411 individuals in 12 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Alabama	64	+20
Florida	3,193	-67
Georgia	1,455	+40
Idaho	5	+3
Louisiana**	446	-43
Montana	11	+3
Nebraska	8	+5
North Carolina	86	+8
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	30	-30
Utah	9	-22
Virginia	1,104	+13

ADAP Nov. 11rd Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[Ann]

Something I can't help but wonder about every time I see one of the states decrease their waiting list - is there any way of knowing if these people were taken off the list because they started getting their meds via ADAP - or if some of them died while waiting? That question kinda eats at me.

[leatherman]

is there any way of knowing if these people were taken off the list because they started getting their meds via ADAP - or if some of them died while waiting? That question kinda eats at me.

Thankfully most, if not all, of these people have been able to get medications because of funds trickling through the system.

There is no actual tracking/announcement of people on the waiting lists that pass away. I would think it would make the news; however, the two who passed away in during the last year here in SC were barely even recognized by the SC Task Force that was formed to bring attention to the ADAP problem in SC

[buginme2]

http://vimeo.com/m/29299649

I posted this video once before.  It is a short film about the lives of 2 people in Chicago who receive ADAP.  Its very well done.

[denb45]

http://vimeo.com/m/29299649

I posted this video once before.  It is a short film about the lives of 2 people in Chicago who receive ADAP.  Its very well done.

Yeah that was a very good video Bug, it speaks volumes for the many people like me, who don't qualify for State-Medicaid, ADAP or Medicare Part D , if it wasn't for my states crave-out-program w/ Blue Cross Blue Shield, I wouldn't be able to afford any of my H.A.R.R.T drugs 

[AlexMerida]

I am sad.
With tears in the eyes it would want to understand many things. the indifference of the some part of the society, the indifference of the politicians and even the indifference of some people who  have safe his medicines. I do not understand how it is that the United States where there is much history of ADVOCACY, this happening these things. In the white house the presidents receive people with HIV, are congressmen who take the voice of people with HIV, the United States have many ASOs, many marathons, galas,  parties, etc.
 In México they do not  have much than this above. Nevertheless in a poor nation like Mexico, where there are  many problems, there is no waiting list. Perhaps the problem in the USA is much greater and therefore it does not reach the money.
I do not want to blame anyone…I just want to understand
I do not want to ask people who have concern and are working hard to do more. They have done any amazing work
I am just worried about people that are able to give a hand…tell them to join
 Mexico has many serious problems…  the Mexican ASOS are  working in another kind of problems related with HIV, but they do not have a waiting list.
Is there any proposal to get rid of the waiting list?
Are Congress men working onto that direction?
The USA medical care has a enormous cost….fot HIV, cancer, dentist, etc
Probably there is the explanation, In the USA they do not have the concept the free medical care for people that cannot afford. No Mather if you have HIV , cancer, or osteoporosis.

[leatherman]

ADAPs with Waiting Lists as of November 17, 2011
6,595 individuals in 12 states
 

STATE	AMOUNT	CHANGE
Alabama	75	+11
Florida	3,213	+20
Georgia	1,525	+70
Idaho	5	0
Louisiana**	475	+29
Montana	9	-2
Nebraska	9	+1
North Carolina	95	+9
Ohio	0	0
South Carolina	65	+35
Utah	13	+4
Virginia	1,111	+7

ADAP Nov. 17th Watch List
**Louisiana has a capped enrollment on their program. This number is a representation of their current unmet need.

[leatherman]

Nevertheless in a poor nation like Mexico, where there are  many problems, there is no waiting list. Perhaps the problem in the USA is much greater and therefore it does not reach the money.
I do not want to blame anyone…I just want to understand
...
Is there any proposal to get rid of the waiting list?
Are Congress men working onto that direction?

Most of the problem causing the creation of these waiting lists lies within the individual states themselves.

ADAP is part of the Ryan White Fund which is a federal program. States are supposed to contribute money into their state ADAP fund, and then the federal government puts in a matching percentage. However, most of the states that have waiting lists have underfunded their portion, so that even with federal funds there is not enough money to cover the need. Unfortunately then, this being a state funding issue, means that it can really only be corrected by advocacy on a state-level and then only during budgeting time.

As an example, this past Jan-Apr, when the South Carolina legislature was working on the state budget, they proposed to totally defund ADAP (they have already been underfunding it year after year, so the state already receives less and less federal funds). Many people rallied with letter-writing/calling/visitation campaigns to their representatives, and there were several marches/rallies at the state capital. Although some legislators did change their votes because of the public pressure/support, there were not enough votes to get proper funding in the passed budget.

However, the Governor vetoed that budget and approved a final budget that did fund ADAP - for about half of what it had funded ADAP the year before! That is important to know because underfunding like this means that not only can ADAP not care for the current clients (meaning it will have to drop some clients and move them to the waiting list); but it can't care for all the new clients that will apply in the upcoming year (due to an increasing HIV infection rate, new clients just keep on applying) and these new would-be-clients automatically go onto the ever-growing waiting list.

The federal government has stepped in several times over the last few years and appropriated additional funding to help clear these waiting lists; but that has only been a temporary measure and doesn't fix the state-level budgeting shortfalls (which can mainly only be addressed during the yearly budgeting debates).

of course, it the USA had some sort of universal healthcare program, this would all be a moot point and there would be no waiting lists. sigh!