ALABAMA: Alabama Has Long-Term Wait List for Public-Funded AIDS Drugs

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2004. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

ALABAMA: Alabama Has Long-Term Wait List for Public-Funded AIDS Drugs

Associated Press (12.16.04) - Friday, December 17, 2004

A Kaiser Family Foundation report released Wednesday found that 18 of the 50 states had waiting lists for AIDS Drug Assistance Programs at some point between July 2002 and November 2004. Alabama, however, was the only state with a waiting list in every one of the regular survey periods: Its list ranged from a low of 89 in August 2003 to a high of 395 in May 2004. Last month, Alabama's ADAP waiting list held 244 people.

Alabama's ADAP now serves 1,232 patients, and an additional 250 patients receive assistance through a special $20 million program started in September by President Bush, said Jane B. Cheeks, Alabama Department of Public Health's AIDS director. "We're identifying more and more people who are infected," said Cheeks.

Since Bush's announcement of the additional assistance to states with waiting lists - 10 at that time - four more state ADAPs started waiting lists; these do not qualify for a share of the extra funding, the Kaiser report said. It is also not clear whether the federal waiting list program would continue next year.

Caseworkers have helped those on the list get drugs from other sources, such as drug-makers' assistance programs, but this is becoming more difficult as the companies limit the free medication they make available, Cheeks said. Manufacturers generally require people to file separate applications for each medication needed and apply as often as every month. Roche Pharmaceuticals agreed to give 12 Alabama AIDS patients free Fuzeon, and the 12th person just signed up, said Cheeks.

It is also not easy getting state funding to match federal funding for AIDS drugs under Ryan White CARE Act - which comes up for reauthorization next year - said Cheeks.
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