Posted on Sat, Aug. 19, 2006

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Groups stress economic impact of HIV

Meeting planned to present S.C. legislators with data and reports

By CZERNE M. REID

czreid@thestate.com

South Carolina’s HIV/AIDS advocacy community is getting together to deliver a message to politicians: HIV/AIDS could hit the state hard financially unless there is better funding for prevention and treatment.

This month, AIDS service organizations and advocacy groups will invite members of the General Assembly to listen to data and reports on the negative impact HIV/AIDS has on South Carolina’s people and economy. Lawmakers also will hear some of the ways they can help.

“No change will be seen until our legislators are part of this solution-building,” said Bambi Gaddist, executive director of the S.C. HIV/AIDS Action Council, which will host the meeting.

Advocates say state funding is not in keeping with the need. This year, the state covered less than 4 percent of the budget for a drug assistance program. The program — which is mainly federally funded — is running out of money and cannot afford to provide medicines for new applicants.

Close to 14,000 South Carolinians are living with HIV/AIDS. The disease disproportionately affects African-Americans, the poor and people who live in rural areas — groups that also have the highest rates of unemployment and poverty and lack of health insurance.

Stigma and poor understanding largely lead to inaction on the part of many voters and lawmakers. However, advocates warn that HIV affects not only those infected, but also the whole state.

“Too many legislators don’t feel they have enough at stake to care,” said Rep. Joe Neal, D-Richland, who says the state needs to better fund HIV/AIDS prevention and control initiatives. “By translating this data into economic data, we have a more cogent and carefully crafted argument that can resonate with people.”

Advocates hope the money talk will help lawmakers realize it is in the state’s interest to develop and fund plans to prevent the spread of HIV and ensure that people who need medicine and treatment can get them.

“Most of the legislators I come in contact with understand things better in financial terms than medical aspects. What they understand is dollars and cents,” said Dr. Kent Stock, who with DHEC has researched the economic impact of HIV/AIDS.

“What you have to do to those people that are apathetic is to shape the disease as having a devastating economic impact on a state that is struggling economically.”

Left unchecked, HIV/AIDS could drain South Carolina’s hospital systems, particularly in rural areas, and weaken a work force vital to attracting new business to the state, Stock said.

Most counties whose levels of new and existing cases were higher than the national average were rural and among the state’s poorest, according to Stock’s preliminary analysis of 2002 data.

That year, South Carolina spent $73 million on HIV-related hospitalization charges for 1,915 people. Average per-visit charges were about $23,870.

Research shows that patients who consistently get medication are less likely to be hospitalized. When there is no money for medicine to keep people healthy, patients often show up very sick at hospitals, where much public money often is spent to treat them.

A program that helps keep people out of the hospital is the AIDS Drug Assistance Program, called ADAP, which provides medications and assistance with health insurance. With discounted rates, the program spends about $10,500 a year on average to provide medicines for each patient.

Close to 1,500 people a month, on average, receive assistance.

A shortfall of $3 million has forced administrators to add a waiting list for new applicants. The list is expanding. There were 144 people waiting as of Thursday, up from 55 in mid-July.

“It makes more sense to contribute a million dollars to ADAP, or else you’re going to end up spending it on the hospital side,” Stock said.

State government contributed $500,000 this year toward the drug assistance program — less than 4 percent of the program’s $14.25 million budget. Most of the funding is through the federal Ryan White CARE Act, which Congress is considering for re-authorization.

In North Carolina, where AIDS advocacy groups describe their General Assembly as “very supportive and helpful,” the state provides $12 million, or more than 40 percent of the drug assistance program’s budget. There is no waiting list in North Carolina, although there has been one on-and-off for the past 10 years, and the roll has risen briefly to as high as 1,000, said Stephen Sherman, coordinator of the program.

“It’s not a lack of resources; it’s a lack of political will,” said Charles King, co-chair of the national Campaign To End AIDS and executive director of Housing Works, a New York-based organization that provides housing, medication and other support for people living with AIDS who are homeless.

“Politicians are a unique kind of animal,” Neal said. “Unless the population speaking to that official has the ability to affect that official — in short, vote for him or her — they may not be heeded.”

Reach Reid at (803) 771-8378.