CHAMP RI has been meeting with HEALTH, the state Health Department, to demand full information on proposed cuts to AIDS services. On this website, you will find all of our letters to HEALTH before and after these meetings, and their replies to our request for information.
WE DEMAND: NO CUTS TO HIV/AIDS SERVICES
We are providing these materials to show the severity of this crisis, and to ensure that all people have equal access to information regarding funding. We ask everyone in the state who cares about the fight against HIV/AIDS to contact us to get involved.
PLEASE NOTE that their latest letter says that the '08 budget will include $750,000 in cuts to HIV/AIDS services. In addition, the document Ryan White Risk Management Options includes six possible "cost saving options," one of which is $997,582 in cuts to community services, and the other which is $1,900,000 in service cuts.
History:
In December of 2005, CHAMP RI sent this letter demanding answers about "hole" in AIDS funding that had been discovered, and rumors that HEALTH was considering cuts to AIDS services.
Last May, this story in the Providence Phoenix outlined the shortfall in funding for Ryan White Title II, which pays for HIV/AIDS medication, care and supportive services. It quoted David Gifford, Director of HEALTH, saying:
“Within the next, probably somewhere between two to five years, this program will not be able to support any of the services — [it] will be supporting just drugs,” Gifford acknowledges. Asked whether this is a worst-case scenario or a statement of fact, he says simply, “That’s what’s going to happen.”
Rhode Island was one of only 13 states that provides no state funding for Title II. Now they do -- the initial bailout of state funds closed the shortfall hole that had developed, and there is now an annual contribution to the program -- but the amount of state contributions is not enough to sustain the current level of medication coverage and services. CHAMP testified in favor of adding state funds to the Federal funding for Title II.
In June, the State of Rhode Island released an operational audit of the Office of HIV/AIDS that exposed problems in accounting, record-keeping and confidentiality.
This January, community service and health care providers must re-apply for funding. The Request for Proposals states that only $1.5 million in federal funds will be distributed, down from $2.7 million. Providers are being pitted against each other in the competition for funds.
At our last meeting with HEALTH, they said they would come to the Rhode Island Community Planning Group (RICPG) to present information about this situation. However, they did not attend.