Demand that President & Congress Address the ADAP Crisis!

[edfu]

National Call-In Day is this Wednesday, May 26:

http://capwiz.com/aac/callalert/index.tt?alertid=15070396

[WillyWump]

Ill be callin

Thanks for that!

-Will

[GNYC09]

will call. thanks!

[leatherman]

thanks for that link edfu!

if you don't mind, I'd like to use your thread to pass along some information about my state of SC

unfortunately the SC legislature is voting on Tuesday (the day before the national call-in day) for their budget which has stripped out ALL ADAP funding ($2.4 million), ALL HIV prevention funding ($1 million), and much much more: Vaccine Purchases for Underinsured Children, EMS Statewide Data System, Environmental/Restaurant/Septic Inspections, Water Quality Monitoring, Health Regulation - Nursing Home Inspections, Chronic Disease Prevention - Diabetes, Youth Smoking Prevention & Cessation, Colorectal Cancer Screenings, Hemophilia Services, HIV Prevention, Rural Hospital Equipment and Facilities, USC Rural Health Clinics

Back in March the SC House Representatives were debating on a budget which cut all ADAP and HIV funding. A rally was held during their debate and afterwards it looked as if funding would still be in the budget - but only half of what had been proposed. Unfortunately between then and now, the House re-evaluated the budget and passed it with NO funding for any HIV services, including ADAP. There will be another rally held outside the State House in Columbia SC on Tues 5/25 from 9a-noon to protest our need for (some, any, ALL) ADAP funding before the State Senate passes this House-approved budget with so much health funding and all ADAP funding removed.

For anyone that can attend or wants to contact SC officials, there is information in the thread "SC ADAP Funding Cut Protest Rally", that I started back in March with our first rally in this battle. Thank you for any help you can offer in our struggles in SC to get adequate acess to life-saving, life-sustaining HIV meds.


You can count on me to also be calling on Wednesday!!

[Inchlingblue]

This link has contact information for senators and representatives:

http://aac.capwiz.com/aac/dbq/officials/

[Jody]

Thanks Edfu for taking the time to post such an important topic.  I will call again later as I was on hold and another call came in.  

It is of particular significance to me as I recieved a letter today from my ADAP in my state capital of Albany asking me to re-certify my eligibility and provide the necessary documentation, including a copy of a pay stub with YTD gross pay.

I am one of those folks who has an annual limit on pharma coverage from my union benefit at work and presumably would reach the annual limit early on in the year.  I have not been in this position before diagnosis and since being eligible for and receivng ADAP coverage in 1996.  If I retire I may be able to sign up for another plan through a company like GHI or HIP and get the optional rider which still may have limits so potentially I have a lot of issues down the road.

I know Tim Horn, assuburnipal and so  many others have taken a great deal of their time and effort in the post on Obama's health plan but I kniow a great deal of it won't take effect until 2014.  

Jody

[Assurbanipal]

Thank you for posting this.  There was a NAPWA email also that had some text that may be useful.  It was a bit too scripted for my taste (and appears to have been cut and pasted from a letter writing instead of a phone calling template), but still it is handy to have something to start from.


My name is __________ and I am writing today to urge Senator __________ (or Representative __________ ) to take action to address the current crisis among AIDS Drug Assistance Programs.  These programs provide life-saving medications to HIV-positive individuals who have no other access to care.  However, over 1,000 HIV-positive individuals are on waiting lists in ten states to receive their medications, and the situation is going to get much worse if there are no additional immediate resources.  Many other states have reduced eligibility or removed drugs from their formularies.  Please support all efforts to increase resources to ADAP in order to help people living with HIV/AIDS.

[edfu]

Joseph Lieberman is, to my regret, one of my U.S. senators.  I have already let him know, in no uncertain terms, that I will never vote for him, for reasons I will not detail here but which I hope are obvious to those who follow political affairs.  Nevertheless, I have continued to correspond with and contact him over various issues.  I recently wrote to him about federal funding for domestic HIV programs, and--to my astonishment--received the following detailed reply.  Credit where credit is due, and he will be thanked, but I cannot change my position regarding his possible decision to run for reelection.  I've decided to post his reply to me here, because it is something hopeful in regard to our dispiriting issues regarding HIV funding by the government.  Of course, there is absolutely no guarantee that any of these increased funding proposals will come to pass, but I believe it is helpful to know that some in our government are attempting to do SOMEthing about the gap between what is needed and what is funded.

Of particular note here is the proposed increase of $370.1 million in federal ADAP funding.

So, take it away, Joe:




Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for increased federal funding for domestic HIV/AIDS
programs.  We are in complete agreement on this matter.  I hope that you will be pleased to learn that I have joined with several of my colleagues in sending a letter to this effect to Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Thad Cochran (R-MS), the Chairman and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
 
Amid rising infection rates and shrinking state budgets, increased federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs .s more vital than ever. State and local health departments and community-based organizations need increased resources to strengthen and expand outreach, education, HIV testing, and prevention programs targeting high-risk populations.
 
An estimated 1.1 million adults, children, and adolescents are living with HIV in the United States. Fifty percent of those with HIV do not have reliable access to care, including the 21 percent who are unaware of their HIV infection. Early and reliable access to HIV care and treatment both helps patients with HIV live relatively healthy and productive lives and is more cost effective. One study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that patients treated at the later stages of HIV disease required 2.6 times more health care dollars annually than those receiving earlier treatment.
 
Specifically, we requested the following funding levels:
 
*Increase Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) HIV prevention activities by $878 million over fiscal year (FY) 2010 appropriated levels. Additional federal resources are absolutely necessary if we are to reverse the increase of new infections.
*Increase the Division of Adolescent and School Health's HIV Prevention Education at the CDC by $20 million over FY 2010 appropriated levels. Recent estimates suggest that 15- to 24-year-olds acquire nearly half of all new sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). In addition, nearly 15 percent of the 56,000 annual new cases of HIV infections in the United States occurred in youth ages 13 through 24 in 2006. It is essential that we provide schools with the resources they require to build and strengthen their capacity to protect and improve child and adolescent health.
*Increase Ryan White funding by $810.5 million over FY 2010 appropriated levels. Ryan White HIV/AIDS programs provide life-extending medical care, mental health and drug treatment, and support services to approximately 577,000 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured individuals and families affected by HIV/AIDS each year. The President's FY 2011 budget requests $2.33 billion for the Ryan White program. However, additional funding is needed to maintain the comprehensive system of care the Ryan White program provides. We requested the following increased Ryan White allocations:
 
*Part A: An increase of $225.9 million for grants to eligible metropolitan areas and transitional grant areas;
*Part B Care: An increase of $55.9 million for care to states, territories, and emerging communities;
*Part B AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP): An increase of $370.1 million to provide life-saving medications to the over 166,000 already enrolled in the program and the hundreds that are currently on waiting lists in 11 states;
*PART C: An increase of $131 million for early intervention services and capacity development grants;
*Part D: An increase of $7 million for women, infants, youth, and their families;
*Part F/Dental: An increase of $5.4 million for Dental School Reimbursement Programs and the Community-Based Partnership Program; and
*Part F/AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETCs): An increase of $15.2 million for these centers.


Fund the Minority HIV/AIDS Initiative at $610 million. According to the CDC, in 2006 African Americans made up 13 percent of the U.S. population but made up 46 percent of new HIV infections that year. In the Latino, Asian Pacific Islander, and the Native American communities, the numbers of HIV infection are just as startling.

Support the President's funding request level for the teen pregnancy prevention initiative and broaden it to address HIV and other STDs. The President's budget has, once again, included zero funding for failed abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. Our letter urged that the committee not include funding for these ineffective programs but instead focus on other proven prevention programs.

Increase AIDS research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by $400 million over FY 2010 appropriated levels. This will allow the United States to remain the global leader in HIV/AIDS research for better drug therapies, evidence-based behavioral and biomedical prevention interventions, and vaccines.

Increase the Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) program by $75 million over FY 2010 appropriated levels. HOPWA is a critical source of housing and services for over 56,000 households. Stable housing is irrefutably linked to positive health outcomes, and this program is critical in maintaining the health of persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Preserve the FY 2010 funding level for the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) to ensure the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. The United States needs an outcomes-focused, comprehensive National HIV/AIDS Strategy to better address the HIV/AIDS epidemic at home. ONAP has begun the process of developing this strategy with broad community and federal involvement.
 
Domestically, the HIV/AIDS epidemic remains a severe and worsening public health crisis. Prevention, early detection, and improved access to care are all critical components necessary to address this epidemic. Although funding decisions are limited and difficult, my colleagues and I will continue to urge that additional resources be made available for domestic HIV/AIDS programs during this year's appropriations process. Please be assured of my strong commitment to these vital efforts to address the ongoing HIV/AIDS crisis as these spending levels are considered.
 
Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. 

Joseph I. Lieberman

[leatherman]

I made my phone calls today!

we made calls during our rally yesterday too! During the three hours of speakers, the MC duties were shared between several people. Each time the director of the SC Campaign to end AIDS came to the mic, she would announce a telephone number for one of various senators and representatives. She would then ask everyone in the audience with a cell phone to call that number right then and leave the message of "please restore the ADAP funding".

What a sight and sound that was - watching a hundred people or more pull out cellphones and all call at the same time to leave this message. Sometimes it took several attempts to get through. Sometimes, your call was routed to VM and other times you actually spoke to a very frazzled and overwhelmed office worker. LOL Needless to say it was a pretty interesting (and fun!) strategy having us flood the switchboards with our messages.

[Inchlingblue]

Edfu, good to know you will not be voting for Lieberman, despite the letter.