Virginia Freezes AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP)

Virginia has once again has shown that it places little value on the health of its citizens. Besides ranking 30th in spending on mental health care , 48th in per capital health care expenditures, 46th in per capita Medicare expenditures, Virginia has now frozen it's AIDS Drug Assistance Program, thus leaving a significant number of those requiring drugs to manage their health condition in the lurch and facing the prospect of being unable to afford much needed medications. The GOP controlled House of Delegates and the Governor brag about Virginia being a "low tax state," but there is a decided cost to not investing in the state's citizens - not to mention its fraying transportation system. Perhaps the GOP elected officials do not care if some "faggots" have increased health care problems - even though the problem in the Norfolk region where I serve on the Ryan White Committee extends to many besides the gay community, including the African American community. But, then again, given the racism of many in the Virginia GOP, perhaps the African-American community is viewed as "undesirable" as well. Here are highlights from The Bilerico Project:
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Virginia announced that they're freezing enrollment in the state's ADAP program, a move that'll keep most people to be diagnosed with HIV/AIDS from being added to the medication program and will move a bunch of people already in the program to waiting lists:
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An estimated 760 of the Virginia patients with more stable immune systems will transition from the state's AIDS Drug Assistance Program to a waiting list in the next few months because they don't meet the scaled-back eligibility requirements. Another 400 new clients a year who would have qualified will also be placed on the waiting list, according to estimates.
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State officials say that these people will be able to get their medications paid through other programs, like Medicaid and assistance from drug companies. If they meet the eligibility requirements of those other programs, of course.
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All this while the federal government should be spending more for the sake of the economy but refuses to do so at a level commiserate with the problem, mainly for ideological reasons. So instead we get a deal that will increase unemployment benefits for a few months, lauded as "stimulative," while states tighten their belts and effectively counteract federal stimulus.
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I continually baffled as to why the USA puts so little value on the health and lives of its citizens compared to other industrialized nations. Especially since the USA as opposed to Europe, for example, has so many self-proclaimed church going Christians who, if they believe the Gospel message ought to be concerned about the sick and the poor. Oops, I forgot - it's many of the conservative Christians who want health care funding cuts and health care reform repealed. Talk about actions not conforming to lip service beliefs.