F‘:

§A|DS Issues in the 1992 Legislative Session:

;The Good, the Bad, and the Level-Funded

|
i
,1 Erica Garfin
i

The 1992 legislative session ended in
the early morning hours on Sunday,
April 26, bringing mixed results for
Vermont’s AIDS community. While the

V state’s economic situation brought less
than positive budget news for Ver-
monters affected by HIV and AIDS,
AIDS advocates are celebrating the
creation of an HIV/AIDS Insurance As-
sistance Program.

Based on a 1991 report by the De-
partments of Health and Social Welfare,
Vermont’s legislature followed the ex-
ample set by at least a dozen other states
in creating a program to pay continua-
tion premiums for health insurance for
people with HIV and AIDS (PWAs).
The program will enable individuals
who are not eligible for Medicaid to
keep their health insurance by paying
their premiums for them. Premiums will
be paid for people with HIV and AIDS
who are no longer working and cannot
afford to pay for their existing health in-
surance policies.

Without this assistance, many people
who have left their jobs because of ill-
ness no longer have the financial re-
sources to pay their premiums. When
people lose their insurance coverage,
they rapidly exhaust their assets as they
attempt to pay their extraordinarily high
medical bills out of their own pockets.
They may lack access to critically need-
ed health care as a result.

The loss of health insurance and the re-
sulting impoverishment makes many of
these individuals eligible for Medicaid.
This is an unwelcome outcome not only
for PWAs, but for the state as well. The
DSW/DOH report estimates the average
annual cost of purchasing insurance for
one individual to be $2,190 in 1992.
Contrasted with the recent national es-
timate of $32,000 per year to treat a per-
son with full-blown AIDS for one year,
the savings created by the insurance as-
sistance program made it especially ap-
pealing to the Dean administration in this
recessionary period.

J uly/August 1992

In budget news, the Health Department
program that minimally supports AIDS
service organizations’ direct services to
people with HIV and AIDS was funded
again at the FY 92 level. That means that
just under $40,000 will be provided in
grants to AIDS service organizations in
the fiscal year that starts in July. In a
year when the demand for those services
has increased by 60 percent, it is sad in-
deed to report that avoiding a cut in this
underfunded program can be taken as
good news.

People with HIV and AIDS who are
Medicaid participants fared less well. An
increase in the Medicaid co-payment
from $1 to $2 on all prescriptions over
$25 was passed at the last moment. This
increase, which may have a tremendous
impact on people with AIDS, is estimated
to save the state a mere $43,000. V

This article originally appeared in The
Update, the Statewide Newsletter of the
Vermont AIDS Community.

AIDS HOTLINES:

Vermont 1-800-882-2437
New Hampshire 1-800-752-2437
New York State 1-800-541-2437
Massachusetts 1-617-522-4090
Maine 1-800-851-2437
National 1-800-342-2437
Canadian 1-613-563-2437
AIDS Community Awareness Project
(ACAP)

PO Box 608

St. Johnsbury VT 05819
(302) 743-1149

AIDS Community Resource
Network (ACoRN)

PO Box 2057 ’

Lebanon NH 03766

(603) 448-2220

Bennington Area AIDS Project
PO Box 1066

Bennington VT 05201

(802) 442-4481 or 1-800-845-2437

Health Resource Organizations

Brattleboro AIDS Project
4 High Street, Suite 2-3
Brattleboro VT 05301
(802) 254-4444 (Helpline)
(802) 254-8263 (Office)

Franklin-Grand Isle AIDS Task Force
8 Ferris Street

St. Albans VT 05478 - (802)524-7742
1-800-638-7834

Gay/Lesbian Alcoholics Anonymous
GLAA, P.O. Box 5653
Burlington, VT 05402

H.E.A.L. Vermont

(Holistic Education and

AIDS Alternatives Liaison)

PO Box 795

Montpelier VT 05602 - (802)229-4325

Lesbian Cancer Support Group
(802) 660-8386

Northeast Kingdom AIDS Coalition
PO Box 40
Newport VT 05855 - (802)334-2437

North Star (Holistic Health Care)
RR2 Box 3255
Morrisville VT 05661 - (802) 888-2858

Vermont AIDS Council
PO Box 275 ,
Montpelier VT 05601 - (802) 229-2557

Vermont C.A.R.E.S.

(Committee for AIDS Resources,
Education, and Services)

PO Box 5248

30 Elrnwood Avenue

Burlington VT 05401

(802) 863-2437 (Burlington)
1-800-649-2437 (Rutland and
Washington County support groups)

Vermont Department of Health
1-800-882-2437 (AIDS Hotline) or
(802) 863-7245 (AIDS Program office)

VT PWA Coalition

PO Box 1055

Brattleboro, VT 05502
1-800-69-VTPWA or (802) 257-9277

Vermont Women’s Health Center
336 North Avenue
Burlington VT 05401 - (802) 863-1386