AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) today welcomed a Florida budget agreement that reverses this year’s cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). The deal restores eligibility to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, reverses the drug restrictions the Department of Health had imposed, and provides $75 million to run the program.
“Florida’s health department walked away from people living with HIV. Lawmakers brought them back,” said Esteban Wood, Director of Advocacy & Legislative Affairs at AHF.
ADAP keeps Floridians living with HIV on the medication that keeps them alive. For tens of thousands of people, it is the difference between managing a chronic condition and a medical crisis.
The agreement includes a cap of 21,000 participants on direct dispense enrollment. As a matter of principle, AHF opposes caps on HIV medication. No one who needs this medicine should ever be turned away.
How We Got Here
“In January, Florida DOH told thousands of people it would cut off their medication and left them in fear for months. Our neighbors, our friends, and our family. In March, it went through with it,” Wood said.
Acting on its own, the Department of Health cut eligibility from 400 to 130 percent of the poverty level, ended insurance premium assistance, and dropped Biktarvy, the most prescribed HIV medication in the country, from the program. More than 12,000 Floridians lost coverage.
AHF led the fight on every front. It organized rallies at the Capitol, lobbied legislators in both chambers, challenged the cuts in state court, ran a statewide public awareness campaign, and built a coalition of people living with HIV, clinicians, and providers. Standing up for people living with HIV in Florida has not come without cost. AHF did it anyway.
The Legislature responded first with $30.9 million in emergency funding, passed unanimously by both parties. Under the agreement reached by budget leaders this week, the program is funded and restored for the year ahead. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on the budget Friday.
The Cost of Cutting Care
People living with HIV who stay on treatment stay healthy and cannot pass the virus to anyone else. That is how Florida keeps HIV in check. Cutting people off from that care does not save money. It drives up hospitalizations and emergency care, fuels new transmissions, and costs lives.
“They said Florida couldn’t afford this program,” Wood said. “The truth is, Florida couldn’t afford to lose it.”
Looking Ahead
AHF called on drug manufacturers to do their part. The companies that make these medications profit from every person kept on treatment, and they have the power to ease the strain on programs like ADAP by lowering the price of their drugs. With need rising and resources stretched, that responsibility has never been clearer.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 3 million individuals across 50 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. In January 2025, AHF received the MLK, Jr. Social Justice Award, The King Center’s highest recognition for an organization leading work in the social justice arena. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
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