Georgia’s ADAP Faces Funding ‘Shortfall,’ Puts New Applicants on Waiting List

Georgia's AIDS Drug Assistance Program, the combined state and federal program that helps patients afford the $10,000-a-year antiretroviral drug regimen, has begun putting new applicants on a waiting list because of a projected $6 million funding "shortfall," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Because of a combination of "flat funding levels" and a "rising number of patients who live longer," the program cannot afford to supply medications to all of the 120 new applicants it receives every month. According to Miguel Miranda, HIV/AIDS director for the state Department of Human Resources, no program funding has been cut and the 4,456 Georgians already enrolled in the program will not be affected, but new applicants will have to either wait or "seek alternative sources" for medications. Jeff Graham, executive director of the Atlanta-based AIDS Survival Project, said the waiting list "really shows that the struggle to get access to basic life-saving medication is a challenge here in Atlanta and through[out] the South ... Funding for AIDS-related services [in the South] has never been at the level that other parts of the country have enjoyed." State Rep. Jim Martin (D) said the state funding level for the program has not increased because the government is "trying to be careful about the state budget given the potential of an economic slowdown" (McKenna/Staples, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 5/18).