Illinois Official: Budget crisis could push 500 people off HIV medication assistance

Action needed today: Download and share this state budget petition!

At a meeting of HIV advocates and services providers on April 6, Illinois AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) director Jeff Maras predicted a grim future for people with HIV in Illinois without adequate state funding.

ADAP provides lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications to low-income people with HIV.  The number of people needing the program has spiked in recent years, largely because of the economic crisis.  Although the program needs an estimated $29 million in state funding next year (an increase of over $10 million), Gov. Quinn proposed an amount that's nearly $5 million less than what will be spent this year.   

As a result, state public health officials are preparing worst-case scenarios if adequate funding is not allocated by the legislature.  To save $3.1 million, ADAP could trim 469 higher-income people from the ADAP rolls.  Limiting the amount of medications a client could receive each month would save another $2.8 million.  Or Illinois could for the first time institute a waiting list.  Read the full menu of cost containment options, shared publicly for the first time, here.

Every one of these scenarios has the same, bad result: people with HIV will be forced to go without life-saving medications.  Many hundreds will become sicker, be unable to work, or even die. 

Alice Tkachik, a long-time HIV prevention program leader, countered with a call to action: the ADAP funding crisis will only get worse, she said, if HIV prevention programs are further slashed and more people become HIV positive. 

“I have to look people in the eye and tell them that they have HIV,” she said.  “I’m going to have to deliver the bad news to a lot more people if this funding situation continues.” 

Alice challenged advocates at the meeting to act—to tell their legislators that HIV medications, housing, prevention, and other services are essential and can’t be abandoned in a bad budget year.  $44 million in state funding is needed for HIV services next fiscal year, and the dire state budget situation means the only responsible solution is for state legislators to raise new revenue through a modest tax increase.

Take action right now by downloading this petition and sharing it with everyone you know: co-workers, clients, friends, fellow parishioners.  Fax it back right away, and we’ll get it to your legislator.

Read more about ADAP

Read more about the impact of the state budget crisis on HIV services

Learn about the request for $44 million for state HIV services