Enrollment For Program Reopened As Officials Seek Funding, Low-Income Can Again Apply For Drugs To Fight Aids

Wed., July 31, 1996

Hunter T. George Associated Press

The state on Tuesday partially reopened enrollment in a program that buys prescription drugs for poor people infected with AIDS or the virus that causes it, even as officials scramble to save the program from bankruptcy.

But new enrollees won’t have access to newer, more powerful drugs - at least until state officials can figure out how much money it will take to keep the program running.

“This is a short-term, stop-gap solution to a public health crisis,” Gov. Mike Lowry told reporters as he announced the reopening, effective immediately.

Earlier this month, the state Health Department cut off enrollment in the program, saying the high cost of new medications and a huge enrollment increase will sap its $1 million budget before the end of the year. The agency said enrollment jumped from 475 in January to 840 last month, while program costs climbed from an average of $53,000 per month to $143,800.

That situation hasn’t changed, but state health officials decided that limiting new enrollees to 54 drugs that help fight infections and other symptoms of AIDS is better than nothing. Those drugs cost about $110 a month per patient and would cost the program less than $150,000 in the next year, according to Mariella Cummings, the Health Department’s AIDS control director.

“It’s small dollars, big impact,” she said.

As soon as health officials finish analyzing data and determine how much it will cost to save the program, Lowry said he hopes to restore access to nine more powerful drugs that, when combined in various forms, appear to stop the disease in its tracks. The list of drugs includes AZT, one of the original AIDS-fighting drugs, and three new kinds of medications known as “protease inhibitors,” which cost about $1,200 a month per patient.

Current clients who are already using those drugs will continue to receive assistance with their bills.

“We’re going to make sure that somebody doesn’t die because we had lifesaving drugs available, but somebody said, ‘No, you can’t have it,”’ Lowry said.

The governor, who has an emergency fund of about $850,000 at his disposal, said he would be willing to put $200,000 into the program this year, and he plans to ask lawmakers to approve a supplemental budget request next January.

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