AIDS: COST OF NEW DRUGS CREATES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
An "unlikely alliance" of pharmaceutical companies and AIDSThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
activists from both ends of the political spectrum is pressuring
the Republican-controlled Congress to increase federal funding
for AIDS drug programs, WALL STREET JOURNAL reports. Their
efforts have already resulted in increased funding for the AIDS
Drug Assistance Programs (ADAP) by $52 million and are expected
to result in an increase of $23 million in federal funding to
help uninsured AIDS patients buy drugs.
THE PLAYERS: The unlikely coalition includes a group of
"gay-rights Republicans" known as Log Cabin Republicans who
support increased funding for drug assistance programs. They say
that the ADAP and other drug assistance programs are "closely
aligned with the new GOP ideology," because they focus on keeping
people off the welfare roles. JOURNAL reports that while in the
past gay-rights lobbyists and activists had met with resistance
in their quest to discuss AIDS appropriations with lawmakers, the
ability of groups like the Log Cabin Republicans to "raise and
distribute political contributions" has opened doors to
congressional GOP offices. At the same time, drug manufacturers
such as Hoffman-La Roche Inc., Abbott Laboratories Inc., and
Merck & Co. have a vested interest in the availability of their
highly praised, but expensive, protease inhibitors. To this end,
pharmaceutical companies have "historically" been "one of the
most generous industries," giving over $3.3 million in campaign
contributions in the last election cycle.
LEFT TO THE STATES: While lawmakers on both sides of the
aisle agree that it is more economical to fund prophylactic AIDS
therapies rather than long-term care or acute care for AIDS
patients, JOURNAL reports that the cost of these new treatments
are high -- up to $16,000 per year per patient. Each state
decides which drugs it will cover under its Medicaid program.
States like New York and California are expected to allot
millions of supplemental dollars next year to cover protease
inhibitors. Other states, including many of the 20 that
exhausted their AIDS funding before the end of the last fiscal
year, are "locked into inertia," according to Joseph Kelly,
deputy director of the National Alliance of State and Territorial
AIDS Directors. "'There is a fear they will be forced to cut
[AIDS patients] off,' or force them on to welfare to guarantee
coverage," Kelly said. However, JOURNAL reports that even when
patients move from the Medicaid program, states are still
required to pay for a portion of their drug costs (Georges,
7/11).