""The Department's action makes clear that legal processes have not been followed. Floridians will now have a say in what happens to this program and its effect on them," Esteban Wood, AHF Director of Advocacy & Legislative Affairs, said in a statement. "It will also provide needed transparency, as the Department has not shown why it needs to make these harmful changes, and show how it now has a claimed $120 million deficit.""
"The department published a notice Tuesday backtracking its decision to gut the AIDS Drug Assistance Program after supposedly failing to find $120 million in the state budget to cover it. The ADAP helps provide medication to those making up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($62,600 or less). Under the proposed cuts, it would only cover those making up to 130 percent of the poverty level ($20,345), impacting over half of the more than 30,000 enrolled in the program."
The Florida Department of Health reversed planned cuts to the AIDS Drug Assistance Program and temporarily restored funding while initiating a formal rule-making process. The reversal followed a lawsuit from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation alleging the department violated legal procedures in implementing the cuts. ADAP provides HIV medications to individuals up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level; proposed changes would have reduced eligibility to 130 percent and affected more than half of the program's roughly 30,000 enrollees. The department cited a $120 million shortfall, while investigators reported the state diverted over $35 million to defeat 2024 ballot measures.
Read at Advocate.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]