How has the North Carolina AIDS Drug Assistance Program affected you?
I am a person with HIV who lives in Newton NC. I work at a job that does not provide any health insurance and pays around ten bucks an hour. My doctor has me on three medications that are used to control my illness. Together, they cost over three thousand dollars a month if I were to purchase them at Wal-Mart or Walgreens. That is three times my take home pay. I can barely afford aspirin. ADAP gets me these drugs at no charge which allows me to keep a full time job and pay my taxes. Without these drugs I would surely lose my strength, then get sick with weird illnesses which in turn would lead to very expensive treatments, at taxpayer expense, that would not prevent my inevitable death. ADAP is a bargain. This is one of a series of interviews highlighting the impact that the AIDS Drug Assistance Program has on the lives of people in North Carolina. If you would like to share your story, contact Claire at claire@ncaan.org. To take action to save the AIDS Drug Assistance Program from proposed budget cuts, send an email to your legislators now.
