Hundreds protest HIV funding cuts

The State

But her good luck – and the luck of about 2,000 other South Carolinians living with HIV/AIDS – may not last.

The current version of the state budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year, which starts July 1, eliminates all money for the Drug Assistance Program, which provides life-saving HIV/AIDS drugs to the state’s low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents.

The budget also eliminates all money for the state’s HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

Without the state funding, matching money from the federal government is also in jeopardy.

The cut would mean the 2,055 people enrolled in the Drug Assistance Program would no longer get help in paying for their medication and could face dire health consequences.

South Carolina is thought to be the first state in the nation to propose the elimination of its entire HIV/AIDS budget.

Rather than simply raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations, SC has decided to simply let people die.

So much cheaper, and besides, anyone with HIV probably deserves it.