Williams (at 2006 Cylar Awards) would be proud of South Carolina

While state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) are never totally secure, AIDS advocates in South Carolina are praising legislators for providing another year of ADAP safety. The state legislature committed last week to $2.4 million for the joint state-federal program that pays for HIV medications for the poor and underinsured. Last year, the legislature boosted ADAP funds to a hefty $4 million to address the woefully neglected program.

"People living with AIDS appreciate that our state legislature has stepped up to the plate," said South Carolina Campaign to End AIDS chair Karen Bates.

State Rep. Joe Neal told the State, "We have finally, as a state, come to grips with HIV/AIDS and are willing to put resources to stem the spread of this disease."

In 2006, four South Carolinians died waiting for AIDS medications and the state's ADAP waitlist once reached 567 people. Thanks in large part to the advocacy work of Bates and late South Carolina C2EA cochair Stephanie Williams, there is no longer an ADAP wait list in the Palmetto State. In June 2007, ADAP served 1,646 clients.

About 800 South Carolinians a year are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, and for the last ten years the state has ranked in the top 10 among all states for HIV infection rates. According to the Kaiser State Health Facts, 7,058 South Carolinians were living with AIDS in 2006.

ADAP funding depends on the yearly whims of state and federal governments but this year has been better than most. Some states have imposed unfortunate cost containment measures, but the most recent National ADAP Monitoring Project report showed that only Montana has a waiting list (of five people).

ADAP, TrOOP and the Donut Hole

South Carolina has helped trim its ADAP rolls by a concerted effort by case managers to enroll eligible people into Medicaid and Medicare. But many people who receive their HIV drugs through the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit reach the so-called "donut hole": They can't receive Medicare Part D benefits until they pay a whopping $4,050 out of pocket (referred to as "true out of pocket costs" or TrOOP). If people can't pay up, they are put into the already strained ADAP system, which then bears the entire cost of medications.

Today, Friday, May 16 there is a briefing at which the ADAP Coalition and Elliot Engel will discuss ADAP funding and the possibility of allowing ADAP to pay the TrOOP costs. Doing so would allow people living with AIDS to benefit from Medicare Part D and save ADAPs $50 million a year.

Read the Update next week for a full report on the briefing.