{"id":325404,"date":"2026-07-01T00:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325404\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T00:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:55:10","slug":"desantis-locks-in-funding-for-aids-drug-program-sun-sentinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325404\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis locks in funding for AIDS drug program \u2013 Sun Sentinel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the state budget in Tampa on Monday, locked in funding for Florida\u2019s AIDS Drug Assistance Program for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, which starts Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>This spring, the Legislature set aside $75 million in funding for ADAP, and eligibility for the program has been restored to those who earn up to 400% of the poverty level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor months, it was a promise. Today it\u2019s the law, and people can finally breathe,\u201d said Esteban Wood, director of advocacy and legislative affairs at the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>However, the 2026-2027 budget <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/06\/18\/florida-says-aids-drug-program-could-need-more-money\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">still caps the number of people<\/a> who can purchase prescriptions directly through the program at 21,000, a roadblock AHF still opposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo one who needs this medicine should be turned away,\u201d AHF said in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>ADAP is funded by a combination of state money, federal grants and pharmaceutical rebates.<\/p>\n<p>Citing a $120 million federal funding shortfall, in January the Florida Department of Health stated it would reduce the coverage threshold from 400% of the poverty level ($62,600 yearly income) to 130% of the poverty level ($20,345 annual pay).<\/p>\n<p>The department also withdrew some of the most popular medications from the list of approved drugs and stopped paying premiums for some plans in March, before the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/05\/26\/florida-lawmakers-reach-deal-to-reverse-hiv-drug-cuts-step-up-oversight-of-spending\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">stopgap funding was approved<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the state budget in Tampa on Monday, locked in funding for Florida\u2019s AIDS&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[28,29,571,114,115,99,109,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-325404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-health","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-social","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}