HIV/AIDS Patients Face Long Wait For Meds Funds

[davidinalameda]

http://www.365gay.com/newscon05/04/042805hivMoney.htm

Despite an increase in national funding, 11 states continue to have waiting lists for low-income HIV and AIDS patients who need help paying for prescription drugs, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Alliance of State AIDS Directors.

"These are lifesaving medications," said Lisejean Freed with the North Idaho AIDS Coalition in Coeur d'Alene. "On my caseload, I have 37 clients in the five northern counties, and probably eight of those people are on a waiting list."

The drugs that slow the advance of HIV and AIDS can cost patients thousands of dollars a month, Freed said. AIDS Drug Assistance Programs nationwide help low-income patients afford the medications, but federal funding is slim. Some states, including Idaho, have been forced to leave patients on a waiting list as health care costs rise.

[sui generis]

1. speaking for Texas here

I heard that the state funding was going to stay level for the next five years in spite of anticipated increases in demand, which effectively means they're making cuts to the program. Making cuts = people dying, and for those few of you DU creepy people who are willing to give away "other peoples'" rights to win the next election, we're not just talking about gays here.

I know from a friend who is a pharmacist that most of the medicines in the most common regimens cost between $3,000 and $4,000 a month without insurance. Even the insurance / copay amounts for those same medicines subsidize at close to $3,000 a month.

This is not a case of being unable to afford to pay for the drugs. This is a case of the government being unwilling to regulate the cost of those medicines, AND unwilling to subsidize Big Pharma by funding these assistance programs, but quite willing to accept their lobbying dollars and gifts.

I used to work for Big Pharma, and I mean in a position to be able to quote costs to you. Most of these drugs cost pennies per pill to produce. The government subsidizes most "new" research, and pharma gets to keep the patent. Those thousands of dollars difference go straight into the shareholder's wallet, and the price is very carefully calculated to be the maximum acceptable fiscal burden to both insurance and non-insured.

The only reason you don't have people rioting in the streets over pharma today is because most of the people this impacts are old folks and sick folks just trying to stay alive, and the rest mostly won't give a damn until it's too late.

:rant: (sui has rabies today)