Say YES to AIDS treatment subsidies!

In Singapore, AIDs patients do not get ANY subsidies for their treatment at all. Insurance policies exclude HIV infections and its symptoms; those that provide some coverage exclude HIV infection via sexual means.

Why don’t AIDS patients get subsidies?

The usual excuse is that HIV infected people have brought it upon themselves by engaging in immoral / risky sexual behavior, and hence they and they alone should pay for the consequences.

This continues to be an excuse, even though medical subsidies are still given to smokers who contract lung cancer, to junk food lovers who develop heart conditions , to reckless drivers who crash in their cars.

This continues to be an excuse, even though most women get HIV from being faithful to their husbands, even though all children get HIV from simply being born.

This continues to be an excuse, even though the cost of subsidizing treatment for women and children is $5000/ yr only (AFA estimates). The cost of providing a 50% subsidy to all HIV patients is $ 9.4 m / year only, 0.5% of our $1.8b public expenditure. In 2008, the government increased HIV funding for manpower and prevention programmes, but not for medical subsidies.

 

What is happening to AIDS patients in Singapore, without subsidies?

HIV infected people die within 5 – 10yrs of infection without medication, but can live for another 40 years – healthily, and without infecting others if they practice safe sex – with the necessary drugs. How many of you reading this are confident of living another 40 years?

A HIV person on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended therapy has to pay about $1650 a month here. Because of the high price, compounded by the fact that HIV patients are often jobless due to job discriminations and unfair dismissal, patients here often cannot afford their drugs.

For most patients, they take their medications whenever they have the money to buy the medicines. When their money runs out, they stop their medication, until they can find money again. But HIV drugs are not like painkillers, where you just have to bear with the pain when you stop the drugs. For HIV drugs, missing just 10% of the needed doses, can make the drugs useless, and 2^nd-line, costlier drugs would be needed to help the patient.

When Mr Goh Chok Tong was prime minister, he promised that nobody in Singapore would be denied health care because they could not afford it. This promise has been kept to almost all Singaporeans. Unless you are a HIV patient. Medifund, which Mr Goh started as the last safety net for the poorest people who could not afford medication, does not fund HIV drugs. In this rich 1^st world nation, people are dying of AIDS, because they cannot afford their medicines.

 

Why are AIDS drugs so expensive?

Drugs for treating HIV are expensive. Because Singapore is a first world nation, drug companies sell drugs here at first world prices. For most other illnesses for which government subsidies are provided, such pricing is fair because the cost is spread amongst all the tax payers, and the cost is affordable for a wealthy nation like ours is. But drug companies cannot make an exception with HIV medication simply because the government refuses to subsidize; drug companies are neither charities nor do they have the responsibility of taking care of a country’s citizens. And unlike diseases like diabetes where there is a choice of cheap basic drugs or expensive sophisticated drugs, all the drugs used in HIV treatment is incredibly expensive.

 

Our “3^rd World” neighbors are subsidizing Singaporeans

In Malaysia, the first line treatment for HIV is provided free, and often Singaporeans have to depend on Malaysia – is it fair for Malaysian taxpayers to be subsidizing Singaporeans? In Thailand, the government backs the production of generics which are just as effective as the non-generics, but cost 2 – 10 times less. Hence Singaporeans have to depend on the Thais as well, but custom laws allows them to bring in only 3 months supply at a time, and hence patients, despite their ill health, their work schedule and their depleting funds, have to make this 3 monthly trip to Thailand to survive.  In Taiwan, the basic HIV treatment is free, and this has helped reduce treatment because the infectivity of HIV patients on drugs is decreased. The WHO recommends that countries put HIV drugs on their list of subsidized drugs, but Singapore dies not heed this recommendation.

The generic drugs being produced however, are the older generation of drugs which have many undesirable side effects. The new , better drugs, with less side effects,  allows the patient to function more normally, but because of World Trade Organisation laws, countries like Thailand and India are not allowed to produce generics.

 

Hope for Singapore

Today, I read with great hope that Singapore’s Communicable Disease Centre (CDC) said it is confident all HIV patients in Singapore will have access to anti-HIV drugs by 2010. (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/393484/1/.html ) At the recent 6^th Singapore AIDS conference, there were many doctors from the CDC that spoke up strongly in support of their patients – no longer did they want to prescribe drugs that their patients would never buy because there was no money. No longer did they want to treat patients who would die because there was no money. Dr Arlene Chua reported during the conference, that 50% of the doctors here support enhanced policies to contain HIV, but another 30% choose to remain silent because they believe doctors shouldn’t meddle in politics. Today I read with great hope that perhaps more doctors have realized that to save patients, great medications are not enough; great policies are needed too, and these doctors have decided to take a stand.

And YOU readers, can do your part, by simply voicing out your support at this ChannelNewsAsia poll here  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/polls/commentform.php?id=168

 

Today I also read with great hope in the Today paper, that WorldVision, which went in rescue of the Myanmar and Sichuan victims, have come to the rescue of AIDS victims here in Singapore. http://www.worldvision.org.sg/st_worldaidsday.php

They are providing educational funds (One Life Fund)  to the children who are suffering from HIV, or have parents suffering from HIV. Because most of the family’s income goes towards the expensive medication, and because HIV parents tend to lose their jobs, these children often forfeit their education. World Vision is making sure the children will never have to choose between school or their parent’s lives.

And YOU readers, can do your part too. Buy a M.A.C VIVA GLAM lipstick and support a child living with HIV in Singapore through school.

Visit the M.A.C counter at Tangs Orchard on December 6, 2008 to purchase a VIVA GLAM lipstick. All proceeds from the sale will be donated to the M.A.C AIDS Fund to help those suffering from HIV and AIDS in Singapore. (M A C AIDS Fund is raised for World Vision’s One Life Fund)

 

And most heartening of all, I read with great JOY and HOPE:

The public CNA poll results: Besides offering voluntary tests at public hospitals, should HIV-positive patients get subsidised treatment?

A resounding 87% say YES!!!!

In case the CNA  poll is close, please join this Facebook group: YES to HIV/AIDS treatment subsidies

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=523405834&ref=name#/group.php?gid=47441588351