Patients Appeal To State To Save Aids Program

Kim Davis has been thrown a life preserver by the medical industry - AIDS-fighting drugs that have given him new hope.

The Spangle man has private health insurace to cover those costs.

That’s not the case with his lover, Jeffrey Weldon. He can’t afford the insurance and a state program is no longer picking up the tab for “protease inhibitors, a promising AIDS drug.

“I’m in a Catch-22,” Weldon told Gov. Mike Lowry and state health officials Tuesday in Spokane. “I’m a perfect example.”

Weldon, who is HIV-positive, is one of hundreds of patients enrolled in the state’s financially troubled HIV/AIDS Prescription Drug Program.

Along with Weldon and Davis, more than a dozen people testified at the hearing on the program at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

The program, which helps low-income HIV-positive patients, stopped enrolling new people for about two weeks in July because of the high costs of new medications and a 75 percent jump in participation.

On July 30, Lowry reopened enrollment but only for basic preventive medication. New enrollees will be eligible for 54 commonly used drugs, but protease inhibitors will be off-limits. Patients like Davis who have private insurance can get the new drugs, but others like Weldon can’t.

Protease inhibitors, which cost patients about $40 a day, block one step in the virus’ reproductive cycle and could help prevent AIDS from spreading.

“What we’re working with here is very good news,” Lowry said.

But with the good news comes harsh financial realities.

Program enrollment almost doubled this year, from 475 enrollees in January to 835 in June. The increase combined with the high price of protease inhibitors has sent expenses soaring from an average of $53,000 a month in 1995 to $143,803 in June.

Nearly $5 million will be needed to meet the needs of the program this year.

Lowry said a long-term solution should include help from the insurance industry, federal and state governments, and the pharmaceutical industry. He talked about forming a coalition with other states to buy drugs in large amounts from drug companies.

Advocates for AIDS patients railed against the pharmaceutical industry Tuesday, asking why the drug companies are charging so much.

“They’ve got the hope right here, and they hold it out of your reach,” said Ginger Goble, executive director of the Spokane County AIDS Network. “That’s immoral … They’re playing us like a deck of cards.”

About half of those who spoke were HIV-positive. Others were professionals who called the program a lifesaver for low-income people. They urged the governor to keep the program alive, but not at the cost of other AIDS-prevention efforts.

Mark Bridges, who is HIV-positive, wore a T-shirt with a red AIDS ribbon on the back, inscribed with “In Memory Of Those Who Have Loved And Lost.” He told the audience he was tired of his friends dying.

Bridges said he’d do almost anything to save the prescription drug program, which helped him when diagnosed with HIV nine years ago.

“I’ll fly over, just to grovel. I don’t care,” he said.

, DataTimes