Hundreds with HIV/AIDS in Kentucky left to die.

Stop the waiting list for the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program; fund the program now!

Greetings,

The Commonwealth's budget ignored pleas from Kentucky Equality Federation and its allies to restore funding to the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program ("KADAP"), leaving hundreds living with HIV/AIDS facing difficult choices. The cost for HIV/AIDS medication averages around $1,200/month—more than the entire monthly income of most families enrolled in KADAP.

The nearly 1500 patients enrolled in KADAP, which is currently unfunded, receive medications through a hodge-podge of resources that are temporary and unsustainable. In the meantime, Kentucky has the longest waiting list in the nation for drug assistance—numbering over 200 men and women—with more being added every day.

People with HIV/AIDS who do not have access to medications are at increased risk for opportunistic infections, more frequent hospitalization (often under indigent status), and early death. In contrast, a person who is taking HIV medications as prescribed and taking care of their health can reasonably expect to live as long as someone without HIV.

Given the larger financial crisis facing the Commonwealth, this may seem a specific and 'special interest' concern.

The impact, however, is far reaching. Individuals with HIV/AIDS are mothers and fathers, family providers, valued employees, consumers, and citizens. Lack of access to medication will result in more work missed, a greater strain on social service organizations as families are forced into poverty and homelessness, a burden on medical facilities who must write off astronomically expensive HIV/AIDS hospital care to indigent and low income people, plus further disenfranchisement of those Kentuckians already at highest risk. Inasmuch as the commonwealth is feeling the challenges of the current economic climate, low-income individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS are losing jobs, struggling to make ends meet, and deciding whether to use their meager incomes to buy life-sustaining drugs or to pay rent and buy food for their families.

HIV/AIDS has the most devastating impact on Kentucky's most at-risk communities, who already face significant barriers in accessing health care. KADAP is literally a lifeline for these men and women.

Minority populations are disproportionately at risk for HIV/AIDS. According to statistics from the HIV/AIDS Branch of the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, African-Americans in Kentucky make 7.6% of the commonwealth’s total population but account for 36% of all new HIV infections. Similarly, Latino Kentuckians make up 2.4% of the population but account for 7% of new HIV infections.

With acknowledgment that Kentucky is in an unparalleled fiscal crisis – failure to restore the Kentucky AIDS Drug Assistance Program and cutting other essential programs and threatening
real people's lives is not how we should close the deficit.

cc: Kentucky Equality Federation
cc: Kentucky HIV/AIDS Advocacy Action Group

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