State AIDS-HIV program out of money

Kenneth Keeton, who grew up in Lake Placid, was diagnosed with HIV 13 years ago.

"Everyone I knew back then who was HIV positive are all dead," said Keeton, 43, an HIV activist who now lives in Polk County.

Drug Assistance Program

Keeton takes Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy, a $9,000 per month, three or four drug cocktail that boosts his T-cell count. Those white T-cells fight the virus, and that keeps the viral load low in Keeton's body. Without those drugs, he acknowledged, he'd be dead too.

Keeton's drugs are paid for by Medicare. But in Florida, state officials are trying to keep a program going that pays for AIDS drugs until new federal money comes down in April.

"Florida has a waiting list," Keeton said. "Ours is the worst among the seven or eight states that have a waiting list. Currently 2,500 clients are on the list, according to StateHealthFacts.org.

"These are people with no insurance, or they're low income, and they can't afford it on their own," Keeton said. "One of my friends died while he was on the list."

The Department of Health's AIDS Drug Assistance Program is $14 million in the red. By next month, patients may not get their drugs, two Department of Health officials told a state Senate committee on Wednesday.

"We're out of money," Lorraine Wells, program director for Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program, told the Senate Budget Committee's Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee.

Help may be on the way. Committee chairman Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, said lawmakers are interested in finding a solution to prevent anyone from going without drugs. The program gets about $85 million through the federal Ryan White Care Act; the state chips in just under $10 million. The program pays for drugs for about 10,000 Florida men and women.

But with the next round of federal funding not expected until April, the program needs $14.5 million to continue to be able to pay for drugs.

"We're exploring options," Wells told the committee.

The Legislative Budget Commission could move money around in the current year budget, said Negron. "We're going to explore which avenues are available. Obviously, it's a crisis situation. I know the governor's office is looking at it as well."

Several drug makers, led by South Carolina company Welvista, have already set up a program to give the drugs for free to anyone on a waiting list for a similar state assistance program. Such programs run in every state and many have experienced cash flow problems like in Florida.

Heinz Family Philanthropies President Jeffrey Lewis said Wednesday the state should talk to him. He hinted that the industry may be able to help.

"It got a lot worse than anybody thought it would," said Jesse Fry, co-chairman of the Florida HIV/AIDS Advocacy Network. When HIV-positive workers got laid off, they asked for state help, and Florida was overwhelmed.

AIDS patients are also living longer, increasing demand for drugs, and statistically, it is spreading faster among seniors and blacks, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2008, 21,289 African Americans contracted HIV, compared with 11,778 whites and 8,000 for all other races.

In the same year, 6,788 men and women over 50 contracted HIV, compared with 7,510 Americans 24 and under.

Highlands County

Although it's not in the news as much as during the 1980s when the outbreak hit the headlines, AIDS is still a problem, said a Florida Health Department spokesman.

Daniel Jimenez, who keeps statistics for Highlands County, said 11 new HIV and seven new AIDS cases were reported in 2010.

In the 30 years since the diseases were first discovered, 96 HIV and 238 AIDS cases have been reported in Highlands, Jimenez said; "185 are still living."

AIDS tests are offered free or at a minimal cost at most doctors' offices and the county health department.