AHF: Florida Budget Becomes Law, Securing Reversal of HIV Drug Cuts

After months of cuts, the signed state budget restores Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program in full and funds it with an additional $75 million for the year ahead

KEY POINTS:

• Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) is fully restored after months of cuts, litigation, and advocacy by an AHF-led coalition of clinicians, providers, and people living with HIV.
• Governor Ron DeSantis signed the 2026-27 state budget into law on June 29. Eligibility returns to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, and every covered medication is back.
• The program receives an additional $75 million in state funding for the year, which the Governor confirmed was not among his vetoes.
• Insurance premium assistance was not restored. AHF will keep pressing to bring it back, with an independent state review due in January 2027.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This year's cuts to Florida's AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) are reversed and locked into law. Governor Ron DeSantis signed the state's 2026-27 budget in Tampa this morning and confirmed that the additional $75 million for the program was not among his vetoes. The restoration protects tens of thousands of Floridians living with HIV and caps a months-long campaign led by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) with a coalition of clinicians, providers, and people living with HIV.

"This victory belongs to our whole coalition, the clinicians, providers, and people living with HIV who told their stories at real personal cost," said Esteban Wood, Director of Advocacy and Legislative Affairs at AHF. "We led this fight together. For months, it was a promise. Today it is the law, and people can finally breathe."

ADAP returns to full strength on July 1: eligibility restored to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, every covered medication back, and an additional $75 million in state funding alongside the federal Ryan White dollars and rebates that sustain the program.

The budget sets a limit of 21,000 people on direct dispense enrollment. AHF welcomes the restoration but opposes that cap on principle. No one who needs this medicine should be turned away.

How the Reversal Happened

The crisis began in January, when the Department of Health announced, without warning to providers or the public, that it would cut ADAP eligibility to 130 percent of the poverty level, end insurance premium assistance, and drop Biktarvy, the country's most prescribed HIV medication. The cuts took effect in March. More than 12,000 people lost coverage, many forced to ration medication or go without.

AHF led the fight on every front: lawsuits in state court, lobbying in both chambers, rallies at the Capitol, a statewide awareness campaign, and a coalition of clinicians, providers, and people living with HIV who testified and shared their stories publicly. Lawmakers responded first with a unanimous $30.9 million emergency bridge in March, then funded the full restoration in the May budget. Today's signature makes it law.

Why ADAP Matters

The case against the cuts was always fiscal as much as moral. Treatment is prevention: people who stay on their medication remain healthy and cannot transmit the virus, which holds new infections down. Cut that treatment and the costs do not disappear; they resurface as hospital stays, new infections, and lives lost.

What Comes Next

Two items remain unfinished. The budget did not restore insurance premium assistance, which kept people on private coverage and generated the rebates that help fund ADAP. An independent state review, due in January 2027, should confirm what the numbers already show: premium assistance more than pays for itself. AHF will keep pushing to restore it.

AHF also pressed the drugmakers. "The cuts are reversed, but the fight is not over," Wood said. "Premium assistance still has to come back, and the companies that set these prices still have to answer for them." Manufacturers profit from every person on treatment and could ease the pressure on programs like ADAP by lowering their prices.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the world’s largest HIV/AIDS healthcare organization, provides cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to more than 3.1 million individuals across 50 countries, including the U.S. and in Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region, and Eastern Europe. In January 2025, AHF received the MLK, Jr. Social Justice Award, The King Center’s highest recognition for an organization leading work in the social justice arena. To learn more about AHF, visit us online at AIDShealth.org, find us on Facebook, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.