Expanded Aids Program Urged

Democratic Gov. Gary Locke wants to expand enrollment in an AIDS drug program for low-income people, arguing it will save money and human misery in the long run.

Key members of the Republicancontrolled Legislature say the additional $4 million that the expanded enrollment will cost isn’t there to spend.

Proposed budgets passed by the House and Senate would maintain the current number of people enrolled in the program by capping the state’s contribution at $4.7 million over the next two-year budget period, which starts July 1.

Locke wants to raise the funding to $8.7 million, keeping the program open to those who might need it in the future. And he says he is ready to fight for it.

“I don’t know how heated it’s going to be, but it’s going to be pursued by the governor,” said Locke’s chief lobbyist, Marty Brown.

The state-federal program helps buy medicine for low-income Washington residents with AIDS or HIV, the virus that causes the deadly disease. For the current budget period, the program received $1.9 million from the state, with the Legislature approving an additional $1.3 million to keep it running through June.

House and Senate budget chairmen say they can only afford to maintain the program at its current level.

“It’s not a question of wanting to do it, or not,” said Senate budget Chairman James West, R-Spokane. “There’s no money.”

Both houses’ budgets spend $100 million less than is permitted under spending-limit Initiative 601, meaning a small part of that figure could be used for the drug program.

But West said the extra money is needed as a reserve in case, for example, the state has miscalculated the number of students in schools or if there are any natural disasters.

“It would be like taking every dime out of your savings account,” he said.

Steven Johnson, public policy director for the Northwest AIDS Foundation, said the drug program is a life-and-death fight that needs to be funded.

“The question is, do we want to pay now or pay later?” Johnson said.

Thanks to a new class of drugs that inhibit HIV protease, an enzyme that the AIDS virus needs to reproduce, people are living better lives, he said. When combined with other medicines, protease inhibitors have substantially reduced the level of the virus in some patients and improved their health.

It is the same type of medication that former Los Angeles Lakers’ star Magic Johnson takes. Last week, his doctors announced the AIDS virus in his body has been reduced to undetectable levels.

“This program keeps people in the work force, paying taxes, being productive,” Steven Johnson said. “If it is not funded, people will become sicker … the state will have to pay for treatment. The bottom line is, the state will pay.”

“The evidence that we have indicates these new drugs in the long run end up saving us a lot of money and a lot of lives,” Brown said. “Long-term care is a lot more expensive than getting people well early.”

The protease inhibitors are costly - about $14,000 a year for one person. Without the inhibitors, treatment costs about $7,000 a year.

And, with an increase in drug effectiveness, the program has seen an increase in enrollment.

The program began in 1987 and within two years had 140 people enrolled. But the number has now reached 1,125, with monthly costs soaring from $53,000 to nearly $238,000, said Raleigh Watts, program director of HIV-AIDS services for the Department of Health.

Watts said the program is forecast to increase by 25 people a month over the next two years. Of the patients who bill the program, 27 percent use a protease inhibitor.

About 3,000 people in Washington have AIDS. At least 9,000 and possibly as many as 14,000 others have been diagnosed with HIV.