Please find below for your consideration a sign-on letter (below) to President Barack Obama, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and *Speaker Nancy Pelosi *asking them to address the ongoing ADAP crisis immediately which currently has over 2,900 on waiting lists nationwide. This letter is being spearheaded by the ADAP Advocacy Association (aaa+) and we seek your support. The deadline for signatories is Tuesday, August 31st.

We are seeking only organizations and not individuals at this time. Please reply to Brandon Macsata with the following information:

• Organization’s name
• City/state where located
• If you should be classified as a national, state or local organization.
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__President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500__

__The Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader
U.S. Senate
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510__

__The Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives
Office of the Speaker, H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515__

RE: Solve Today’s ADAP Crisis by Finding the Missing $101 Million

Dear Mr. President, Majority Leader Reid & Speaker Pelosi,

The ADAP Advocacy Association – along with the undersigned organizations – are writing to you on behalf of the 2,937 individuals in thirteen states currently waiting to access their life-saving medications from the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), as of August 12th.¹ Their collective well-being is in your hands and they’re calling out for leadership now! The perfect storm confronting the nation’s ADAPs is growing worse by the day, and more people are being put into harm’s way without the immediate infusion of federal funds into the program.

We urge you to put politics aside and move swiftly to enact the “Addressing Cost Containment Measures to Ensure the Sustainability and Success of the ADAP Act” (S.3401), otherwise known as the ACCESS ADAP Act. If that is not a feasible option, at least find the additional $101 million that the advocacy community identified early this year as being needed in FY 2010. The President’s reprogrammed $25 million for ADAP is deeply appreciated, but will not be enough stop the deteriorating access to treatment on ADAP for people living with HIV/AIDS. Furthermore, it will not stop the waitlists from climbing, reductions in ADAP drug formularies, or eligibility limitations.

Make no mistake about it, this is a war! Similar to the battles that our men and women in uniform are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, people living with HIV/AIDS are fighting for their lives against an opponent that is extremely deadly, persistent and resourceful. Without access to care and the proper treatment, these 2,937 Americans are starring death in the face. As a nation, we wouldn’t accept sending our troops into battle without the adequate funding to ensure victory, and we shouldn’t expect anything less for the fight against HIV/AIDS here in the United States.

We’re still holding out hope! You have the ability to provide them with the resources necessary to remain healthy, productive members of their communities. This battle can be won!

The ACCESS ADAP Act would transfer $126 million from discretionary amounts appropriated under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Public Law 111-5) that remain unobligated, to be used by the Secretary of Health & Human Services in fiscal year 2010 to provide assistance in reducing waiting lists under the AIDS Drug Assistance Programs. The stimulus language is clear, where it reads:

“HHS also received $22 billion in discretionary budget authority. The majority of these funds will be obligated by September 2010 to achieve the most rapid impact for citizens and States affected by the current economic downturn. HHS Recovery Act activities support efforts to increase access to health care, protect those in greatest need, expand educational opportunities, and modernize the Nation’s infrastructure. HHS is committed to quickly and carefully distributing Recovery Act funds in an open and transparent manner that will achieve the objectives of the Recovery Act. HHS quickly established new policy and technical processes to review spending plans and to implement the Recovery Act requirements for transparency and accountability. To coordinate and manage the complexity of HHS’ role and processes in the Recovery Act, HHS established an Office of Recovery Act Coordination. This Office will ensure that HHS fully implements the Act’s requirements and OMB’s guidance including meeting reporting due dates, establishing and tracking performance outcomes, mitigating risks of fraud and abuse, and keeping the public informed through the web and other means of communication.

HHS Recovery Act activities touch the lives of Americans and pave the way for health care reform by: (incomplete list)

* Improving and Preserving Health Care;

* Strengthening Community Health Care Services; and

* Promoting Prevention and Wellness.”²

We appreciate the political argument against using stimulus dollars to address the ADAP crisis – especially since the legislation was introduced by Members who opposed President Obama’s stimulus plan. But the measure of true leadership is putting aside the partisan politics of the day and doing what’s right for the people who need it the most. Today, nearly three thousand Americans need YOUR help, NOW!

Unfortunately the $25 million solution proposed by President Obama in July 2010 is not sufficient, nor will it end the wait for the ADAP waiting list patients. By all conservative accounts, cash-strapped ADAPs need the full amount of $126 million in additional funds just to move the current wait list patients into treatment and maintain the current status of the programs in line with the annual growth in ADAP. Every day that goes by the waiting lists grow and another person’s life is put in danger.

Since this crisis started, ADAP waiting lists have increased from 99 people in June 2009 – or approximately a 3,000% increase. We witnessed growth from four states with ADAP waiting lists back then to 13 states now. And yes, there have even been possible deaths reported.

The ugly truth about the ADAP waiting lists is that they disproportionately impact the south, communities of color, and in many cases, some of the most impoverished areas in the country. In fact, 83.4% of the ADAP waiting list patients reside in the south.

The ADAP waiting lists are simply the “Tip of the Iceberg” – because their lies a much more profound crisis looming as more states are restricting their eligibility and thus moving thousands of HIV-positive patients off of treatment.

This crisis cannot be solved using a “Robbing Peter to Pay for Paul’s Healthcare” strategy – that is, transferring funding from one program to pay for the shortfall facing the ADAPs. Unfortunately, some states have used this very approach to balance their budgets – including in California, where funding for HIV medications was eliminated from the prison system to help pay for the ADAP budget. Or in Pennsylvania, where funding for prevention programs has been slashed. Actions like this, while driven by state needs for balanced budgets, like restricted ADAP access simply guarantee bad health outcomes for the HIV-positive patients impacted. It also increases future health costs from all healthcare funding streams to deal with medical costs which could have been avoided by timely access to ARV treatment.

The crisis cannot be solved using a band-aid remedy, which is what we’ve seen, suggested in various government quarters, we need your leadership on this issue and we need it now! Only you have the ability to solve the ongoing ADAP crisis immediately by bringing the ACCESS ADAP Act to the House Floor for an up or down vote, or finding alternative means of supplying the necessary $101 million. In this circumstance, loss of time does mean loss of both health and future loss of public and private treasure.

*The time has come to End The Wait!*

Sincerely,

____

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[1] National Alliance of State & Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), The ADAP Watch August 12, 2010.__

² American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Public Law 111-5)