North Carolina Medication Program One of Hardest to Qualify for in Country

According to a new report published by the liberal Common Sense Foundation, North Carolina's medication assistance program for people living with HIV has the toughest eligibility requirements and the longest waiting list in the country.

As of 2000, about 20,000 North Carolina residents had tested HIV-positive. The medication program helps people who lack private health insurance and do not qualify for Medicaid. But to qualify, people with HIV who live alone must earn $11,075 or less per year. Most states, including Virginia and South Carolina, allow people who earn more than twice that to qualify. Even with the strict eligibility rule, more than half of the people on waiting lists nationwide -- 685 out of roughly 1,200 people -- are in North Carolina, the report says.

The foundation is urging the state to make more people eligible for the program and to eliminate the waiting list, something it says would cost less than $20 million. David Mills, the foundation's research director, says North Carolina failed to support HIV programs adequately even before the state's recent budget woes. "The vast majority of people who suffer from HIV/AIDS are people of color. We think that may have something to do with why this problem hasn't gotten as much attention as it deserves," Mills said.

Some in the state have reservations about expanding the program, which could commit the state to huge expenditures in the future, said Roy Cordato, vice president for research at the conservative John Locke Foundation. Cordato questions whether taxpayers should pay for medication for people who contract the virus through sexual activity. "Why should people who are careful and not sexually promiscuous have to subsidize people who are?" Cordato asks. "There's a moral question here. ...Shouldn't people bear the consequences of their actions?"

But those who assist individuals with HIV say there is no excuse for how the state has responded to the disease and low-income individuals who can't afford the high cost of therapy. "It's absolutely a travesty," said Sam Parker, executive director of the Triad Health Project.

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