Cuts Force Reduction in Florida AIDS Program

The state of Florida estimates that about 60 Citrus County residents have AIDS or are HIV-positive. Those residents are now in jeopardy of losing medical and home care benefits under the Medicaid-funded Project AIDS Care.

The services include case management, homemaker assistance and other related services, like physical therapy and health assessment, and are crucial to allowing HIV/AIDS patients to remain at home, instead of seeking more expensive care in a nursing home or hospital.

Citrus County is being affected by state efforts to trim $1 billion from the state budget. Part of that reduction will be a $10 million cut from Project AIDS Care during the next year -- 43 percent of the agency's funding.

People who receive meals at home, physical therapy, housekeeping, health assessment, pest control and therapeutic massage and case management under the program will suffer the complete elimination of these services. But, no matter where the cuts come, advocates predict the government will end up paying a larger bill as patients deteriorate and need more intense and extensive services from hospitals or other programs.

"The cost shifting will happen again," said Karen Klubertanz, a planning manager with the North Central Florida Health Planning Council in Gainesville. Drew McCarthy, who is Florida AIDS Action's director of government affairs, said his agency would work to have the state legislature restore funding or limit the cuts to $5 million.

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