California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger is expected to sign a bill providing a $27 million increase
for the
state’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program for the 2004-2006 fiscal year, $2
million more than expected and
probably enough to offset recent increases in ADAP cost and utilization
rates.
Schwarzenegger, in an attempt to save
$550,000 in ADAP costs, put forth a budget proposal earlier this
year that would have capped ADAP enrollment during the 2004-2005 fiscal
year, which begins on July 1
and ends on June 30, 2005. Both the Assembly and Senate budget committees
rejected the proposals,
opting instead to adopt two cost saving measures that would save more money
than an ADAP enrollment
cap.
Schwarzenegger submitted a revised budget to
the legislature in May – the so-called May revise – that
eliminated his earlier calls for an ADAP enrollment cap and provided a $27
million increase in state ADAP
funding, $2 million more than what advocates had asked for. The House and
Senate both approved the
revised budget, sending it back to Schwarzenegger for his signature. “There
was really good advocacy
in the state this year,” said Anne Donnelly, Public Policy Director for
Project Inform, a national treatment and
advocacy organization based in San Francisco. “That really made a big
difference.”
The California ADAP has experienced rapid increases in enrollment and costs
during the past several months,
increases that may be a result of the proposed waiting list, Donnelly said.
“We believe that because this waiting
list was on the table, people may have thought, ‘I’d better get a spot on
the ADAP program,’” Donnelly said.
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