Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
March 31, 1999, Wednesday CONSTITUTION
EDITION
SECTION: Features; Pg. 3C
LENGTH: 443 words
SERIES: Home
HEADLINE: HEALTH WATCH;
Getting AIDS drugs in
Georgia tough for many, study shows
BYLINE: Lillian Lee
Kim, Staff
BODY:
Hundreds of Georgians with the
AIDS virus have a tough time obtaining drugs that can make the difference
between life and death.
And the state's safety net for helping such
people has the longest waiting list of any similar program in the United States,
according to a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent
organization that studies health care issues.
In June 1998, when the
Kaiser foundation compiled its statistics, Georgia's AIDS Drug Assistance
Program had 944 people on its waiting list. By mid- January, the most recent
figures the state has, that number had grown to 1, 350. Only 11 states have
waiting lists.
State AIDS officials say Georgia's ADAP
has improved since Kaiser did its research.
"That report is already
outdated," said Mark Schrader, director of the STD/HIV section of the state
Department of Human Resources Division of Public Health.
Additional
state and federal ADAP funding recently added slots for 700 new
patients up from 1,421, but several hundred Georgians will still have to wait.
These are people who are well enough to work and earn too much to qualify for
Medicaid, yet cannot afford the $ 10,000-$ 15,000 annual cost of HIV drugs.
"We know that the waiting list will be reduced, but we will still have a
waiting list," said Jeff Graham, executive director of the AIDS Survival Project
in Midtown.
The state does help those on the waiting list obtain HIV
drugs through patient assistance programs offered by pharmaceutical companies.
"The waiting list is an issue, but to my knowledge we're not aware of
people who need drugs," Schrader said. But the patient assistance programs lack
the security of ADAP, since drug companies are under no
obligation to maintain them.
Eliminating ADAP's waiting
list would require about $ 10 million more in funding above
ADAP's budget of $ 17.9 million, most of which comes from
federal sources, Graham estimates.
Georgia also is one of only six
states whose ADAP does not cover supplemental drugs needed to
treat infections that commonly afflict people with HIV, according to the Kaiser
report.
People can obtain such drugs through the Grady Health System,
but a pending price hike for prescriptions to $ 10 each from 50 cents will hurt
them. People with HIV take an average of five to seven supplemental drugs per
month in addition to their HIV drugs, Schrader said.
"The investment in
ADAP is paying off nationally," Graham said. "We need to learn
that lesson in Georgia. We need to have the resources to make our
ADAP as comprehensive as others in the country, or we will fall
further and further behind in the fight against AIDS."
LOAD-DATE: March 31, 1999 
