Utahns with HIV, AIDS upset with Legislative committee's indecision on federal grant program

SALT LAKE CITY — Janna Dove has had HIV since before it had a name and full-blown AIDS for 25 years.

"I was diagnosed in 1985, and they called it HTLV3," Dove said Tuesday. "I've been doing pretty well all these years, all things considered. But this non-decision by Utah that suddenly puts funding for medication up in the air that has absolutely has kept me alive and working and contributing taxes makes me sick, and they should be ashamed of themselves."

"They" and the "non-decision" Dove referred to is a postponement by the Legislature's top budget committee last week of an application for a federal grant that helps underwrite medical care for Utahns living with HIV and AIDS.

The money is part of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, also known as CARE, approved by Congress in 1990. It's a grant the committee has signed up for every year since 1992 without hesitation.

The state budget approved last month by the full Legislature includes $1.4 million in state funds for the program, an expenditure that is matched 3-to-1 by the Ryan White Fund. The program subsidizes the purchase of health coverage for AIDS patients with incomes below 250 percent of the federal poverty level, about $27,000 for a single-person household.

Utah Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, along with Republican members of the state Executive Appropriations Committee, voted to approve state participation in dozens of other grants at an April 6 meeting. But they unexpectedly held up the AIDS grant application, agreeing they needed more background information and potential impact of funding between now and the next scheduled meeting in May.

Waddoups and others on the committee were quick to note that the postponement will not cause anyone who needs the grant funds to not receive them. However, they didn't say what will happen if they vote it down in May.

"I would just like Sen. Waddoups and those committee members to understand that by not doing this, they are sentencing people to death," said Dove, 54. "I'm not kidding. Without this, we can't possibly afford the prescriptions that are keeping us going."

Dr. David Sundwall, executive director of the state Department of Health, said he would find the funding to cover any interim gaps.

Sean Camp said he would have had to risk going without medication for at least two months had it not been for the Ryan White fund. Camp, who was diagnosed with HIV 14 years ago in Atlanta, moved to Logan two years ago and now works as a social work clinical assistant professor at Utah State University.