Nashua's AIDS Task Force provides transportation, counseling and medicine to HIV-infected patients.
But after March 1st, it may offer very little.
That's because the state expects to lose the majority of its federal funding for AIDS related services.
For Nashua's more than 100 clients, that's life-threatening news.
NHPR Correspondent Sheryl Rich-Kern has the details.
In New Hampshire, World AIDS Day came and went December 1st barely noticed.
When the AIDS Task Force in Nashua organized an awareness event at city hall, only about 35 people showed up.
It was raining outside, making the group forgo its planned candlelit vigil.
But the rain didn’t completely dampen their efforts.
They gathered in a circle to read the names of loved ones lost to AIDS.
(Sound from event –reading names) circleNames2: Brian Dwyer, Lisa C., Tina LeBlanc, Stanley P., Mark M.
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Room sound fade under
Then, those attending began to focus on the future.
More specifically, on the future of AIDS services in southern New Hampshire.
The AIDS Task Force in Nashua stands to lose about 275,000 dollars in federal funding.
That’s a third of its annual budget….and the loss could threaten services.
Alberta Mackey of Nashua has lived with HIV for almost 20 years.
Mackey1: But I’m pretty sure if they make these cuts, (starts to cry) I won’t have long to live. I want to be with my grandkids.
Mackey, who is quite ill and has trouble walking, says she depends on the Task Force.
Mackey2: Where will I get my medication? How will I get to see my doctor?
The Boston Public Health Commission distributes federal AIDS assistance to the Boston metro area and three New Hampshire counties, Hillsborough, Rockingham and Strafford.
The Commission distributes about 1.6 million federal dollars to those counties.
But Massachusetts officials say they've been giving New Hampshire more per-patient dollars than they keep in state.
And so they've decided to cut what they send New Hampshire by about 1 million dollars in order to keep Massachusetts clients healthy.
Wendy Furnari is the Nashua AIDS Task Forces' assistant director.
She worries about what’s going to happen in March when that decision is expected to go into effect.
It’s time, Furnari says, that New Hampshire steps up to the plate.
WendyStepPlate: Because New Hampshire is considered a low incidence state, we don’t qualify for very much federal money.
The State Health Department estimates about a thousand people here live with HIV.
Nearly 600 have full-blown AIDS.
Furnari says only six states in the US don’t contribute their own tax dollars for AIDS assistance.
Until 2006, New Hampshire was one of them.
WendyMedMoney: Last year for the first time the legislature voted to put 180,000 dollars into the state budget, which was earmarked for HIV medications. In the first two months of the fiscal year, that money was completely spent.
Mary Ann Cooney is the State's Director of Public Health.
She says that without federal funding, the state can’t take care of its HIV patients.
CooneyFirstStep: We’ve recently sent over a letter to the commissioner, and I know that he has forwarded it on to the governor, and also made aware the fiscal committees. That’s the first step.
That step's not big enough for Portsmouth Senator Martha Fuller-Clark.
She’s asking the governor to replace the million dollars being lost to Massachusetts.
Nashua's State representative Joan Schulze has another plan.
She’s proposed a bill allowing HIV patients to get assistance through Medicaid.
That may cost money, Schulze says, but it's going to cost more to stand by and do nothing.
SchulzeCostMoreMoney: Folks are going to go into the city welfare department, folks are going to be ill, they’re going to go into the hospitals.
Her proposed bill mirrors what the state of Maine did four and a half years ago when they adopted a waiver to extend traditional Medicaid coverage to special populations.
Genevieve Meredith coordinates AIDS funding in Maine.
Meredith1: The goal of the waiver was to keep people healthy, to keep people from progressing from HIV to AIDS.
Despite efforts at the New Hampshire statehouse, Wendy Furnari of the Nashua AIDS Task Force is not optimistic.
WendyNotOptimistic: I’m honestly very scared about the stability of our agency. And not for the sake of the agency, but for the sake of the clients that need these services and look at this as a safe haven and a place where they can come and are not judged.
Unless lawmakers push urgent assistance through, it's unlikely any possible state money will be available before the federal AIDS funding ends on February 28.
Health officials say they won’t know the status of funding for their department until late Spring.
Some patients with AIDS wonder if they can hold on that long.
For NHPR News, this is Sheryl Rich-Kern in Nashua.
