Nevada Lacks Funds for AIDS Patients

Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn's proposed budget did not recommend increasing AIDS Drug Assistance Program funding to $4.5 million over the next two fiscal years, as the state Health Division had requested. Instead, Guinn recommended no funding increase from ADAP's previously budgeted $2.7 million; the state funds supplement about $6 million in federal funds. Last year, Nevada ADAP would have run out of money without emergency funds from a Clark County program that kept it solvent, said division officials.

If ADAP funding is important enough, the Legislature will include it, said Greg Bortolin, the governor's spokesperson. "That's what the whole legislative process is about," said Bortolin. "That funding item will hopefully get its day in the Legislature for people to express their concerns."

Nevada's ADAP provides about 870 low-income HIV/AIDS patients with the medications they cannot afford. Some 220 more patients are expected to enroll over the next two years.

"As a person who takes care of these patients when they get sick in the hospital, I know that if you don't treat it, people get sicker," said Dr. Jerry Cade, director of HIV services at University Medical Center in Las Vegas. "Aside from what it [the state funding shortfall] does to these people, it is not cost-effective. They are unable to work and they take up a lot more resources."

The governor's budget does include $276 million in new spending -- with an emphasis on mental health -- for health and human services in the coming two years.

Back to other news for February 3, 2005