Early in January, Governor Jerry Brown proposed a budget that seeks to address a $9.2 billion deficit for the 2012-13 fiscal year in part by making unacceptable cuts to health and human services, including services for people with HIV/AIDS.
People living with and at risk for HIV and the programs that they depend on were hit with severe budget cuts three years ago that eliminated state support for prevention and education, as well as many care programs. Only the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) was left intact as a result of aggressive community advocacy. ADAP provides free, life-saving prescription drugs to more than 40,000 low-income, uninsured, and underinsured people in California.
Now, the Governor’s 2012-13 budget proposes to cut $76.8 million in state general funds from ADAP.  $64 million of that is based on the faulty assumption that savings can be achieved by moving ADAP clients onto newly created Low Income Health Plans that would pick up their drug costs – but are not ready to absorb them. The plan would also impose $14.5 million in cost-sharing requirements on ADAP clients. People making an average of only $1,322 per month would be charged $66 a month in share of cost before they could access their medications. And for some people, share of cost would be nearly $400 per month.
Forcing unreasonable share of cost for their medications will result in people with HIV and AIDS dropping out of the program altogether, placing their health at risk and costing California more money in acute and emergency care. And because people with HIV who are effectively treated can be as much as 96 percent less likely to transmit the virus to others, it will result in increased HIV cases, as well.  This dangerous proposal comes at a time when the nation’s strategy for controlling the epidemic is focused on increasing the percentage of HIV-positive people who know their status and are successfully engaged in care and treatment. San Francisco and other cities are seeing significant improvements in the health of people with HIV and reductions in new cases of HIV due to this approach.
The governor’s budget proposal includes deep cuts to other programs that would also have devastating impacts on people living with HIV/AIDS in California. The Governor proposes cutting nearly $950 million from CalWORKs, the state’s welfare-to-work program. The cost savings would be achieved by limiting the amount of time most adults could be on the program. He also wants to cut nearly $164 million from In-Home Supportive Services, which provides services for the elderly and disabled people, including many with HIV/AIDS.
The Legislature will now respond to the Governor’s budget and the Administration will release a revised budget proposal in May. Project Inform will work with the Brown Administration, the Legislature, our community partners and people with HIV to ensure that HIV positive Californians have access to ADAP and the other programs necessary to ensure adequate care and treatment. We will let PIPeNews readers know how you can help at critical moments in the process.