Please consider taking a moment to ask Rep. Rehberg to increase funding for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP), which helps uninsured and under-insured AIDS patients obtain the medications with which they can stay reasonably healthy and productive. As chairman of the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Rehberg’s in a position to make a real difference — and according to D. Gregory Smith over at From Eternity to Here, and a real difference is needed:
ADAPs need at least a $106 million increase to continue to serve the thousands of new clients entering the programs every year.…However, ADAP waiting lists continue to grow at an astronomical rate.
In January of this year, there were 4,200 people on waiting lists. As of August 26, 2011 the number more than doubled to 9,141people in 12 states — including 28 people in Montana — waiting for lifesaving medication. Nineteen ADAPs, including 11 with current waiting lists, have instituted additional cost containment measures since April 1, 2011 such as reduced formularies and enrollment caps. Additionally, ten ADAPs are considering implementing new or additional cost-containment measures by the end of ADAPs current fiscal year (March 31, 2012).
Smith has the links to an online petition to Rehberg, whose heart is going to be a bit softer in a election year, and more information, including some interesting maps. If our nation had a zero-dollar single payer system, which it can afford, this petition wouldn’t be necessary. But right now it is, so please take a moment and add your name to the petition to Rehberg.