A community advocate is accusing the DeSantis administration of "kneecapping" the Florida Legislature and its willingness to shore up a purported $120 million deficit in a program that helps people living with HIV and AIDS afford their prescriptions.
House and Senate health care budgets passed this week contain funding to help shore up the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), with the House budget earmarking $68 million to the program to cover costs through June 30.
The Senate's proposed spending plan appropriates $118 to help fill this year's shortfall.
"They're listening, they're leaning in, and they have been absolutely incredible to help us. But there's a problem.The [Florida Department of Health] needs to stand down," Broward County activist Michael Emanuel Rajner said outside the Old Capitol Wednesday during a rally protesting the cuts.
Nonetheless, Rajner said, the DOH, headed by State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, is moving ahead with implementing reductions it announced on its website and in correspondence sent to ADAP members.
"The health department needs to stand down while the rulemaking process goes through, which they're legally supposed to do, and they need to stand down to allow the Florida Legislature to move forward with the budget process and have the governor sign it. If they do not, people's health care policies will be canceled effective March 1," Rajner told the crowd.
He added that by moving ahead with the proposed reductions, the DeSantis administration is "kneecapping the Florida Legislature."
Rajner alleges the DOH has instructed its "processor" to not make any health insurance payments for people on ADAP, a move expected to affect about 16,000 people.
An attempt to contact the DOH and the governor's office for comment for this story was not immediately successful.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.SUBSCRIBE The changes include reducing ADAP income eligibility from 400% of the federal poverty level, or $63,840 annually for an individual, to 130% of the federal poverty level, or $20,748.
Another change is eliminating the premium assistance program that helps underinsured patients purchase costly drugs. Moreover, the program would no longer offer Biktarvy, a daily pill used to treat HIV in adults and children weighing at least 31 pounds.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) sued the DOH in administrative court and requested the administrative judge expedite the challenge. The AHF in its challenge alleged the Department of Health violated state law by making the policy changes without passing the requisite rules.
After the judge agreed to expedite the hearing, the DOH published notice of the proposed rules. The move — which the AHF in a filing said is the DeSantis administration's "implicit acknowledgement" that the policies require rulemaking — put the administrative challenge on hold.
Come together
Wednesday's rally brought people from around the state to Tallahassee, including 43-year-old Ocala resident and HIV-positive person Tori Samuel. With the help of the ADAP program, Samuel has been able to take meds to keep her virally suppressed for the last 23 years. She is about to celebrate her 16th wedding anniversary.
"He is not HIV-positive. I have three biological kids — 22 and a set of twins that are 12 — that are not HIV-positive. And it is because I have had access to my medication," Samuel said, adding that she's successfully been taking Biktarvy for the past eight years.
"Biktarvy can run between $4,000 to $5,000 a month. Who can afford that?" she asked the crowd.
Samuel said she was advised by the DOH that her annual income is $3,000 over the new eligibility limits the DeSantis administration wants to impose.
"I advocate the way I do … because people have a stigma about HIV. It is just a disease that we live with, but if we can have access to our medicine, it is controlled," she said.
"This will be at everybody's back door," she added.
Valerie Brown drove from Mississippi to attend Wednesday's rally; she has family members in Florida who are enrolled in ADAP and would be harmed by the DeSantis administration's proposals.
"I'm just here because it's the right thing to do. You know what I mean? People deserve to receive the best quality of help. They deserve like to — I don't know — to be treated with humanity, dignity. You know what I mean? And not just kicked by the wayside, shall we say."
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