Ron DeSantis will have 'blood on his hands' if HIV funding isn't restored, Democratic chair says

Tens of thousands of Floridians are facing a life or death scenario as Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration revokes funding for HIV medication.

The Florida Department of Health has gutted the AIDS Drug Assistance Program after supposedly failing to find $120 million in the state budget to cover the cost. The program provides assistance to low-income people living with HIV, meaning that over 10,000 people could lose access to life-saving medication if funding isn't restored.

"The DeSantis administration for now seven years has been scapegoating the LGBTQ community from day one," Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried tells The Advocate. "If there is anything that they could do to harm this community, they will do it."

When Republicans passed the 2025 federal Budget Reconciliation Bill, Donald Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill, they stripped funding for Medicaid and limited access to insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Now, due to "rising health care insurance premiums nationwide," the FDOH announced on its website updates to the ADAP, including restrictions on who qualifies for the program.

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As of 2025, the ADAP covered those making up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level ($62,600 or less). This year, it will only cover those making up to 130 percent of the poverty level ($20,345), impacting over half of the more than 30,000 people enrolled in the program.

While the state claims it can't find the money for HIV medication, a December investigation from the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times found that the DeSantis administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds to defeat two constitutional amendments on the ballot in 2024. The amendments, which would have legalized recreational marijuana and overturned the state's six-week abortion ban, each fell short of the 60 percent supermajority required to pass, receiving 56 percent and 57 percent of the vote, respectively.

"Why is there a shortfall in the state budget? Where'd the money go?" Fried asks. "Did the money get diverted someplace else, such as trying to take down the legalization of cannabis or the access to reproductive health care where we've already seen disclosure that they moved about $35 million from different agencies to cover the cost of them trying to take down the citizens initiative?"

"We have the damn money. The damn money is in the state of Florida," Fried continues. "They were able to spend $500 million building Alligator Alcatraz with no big contracts. We are still in a state of emergency for now almost two and a half years. They have the money. They can put the money in the coffers. They're choosing not to."

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For those on antiretroviral drugs, stopping treatment can be deadly. Not only will the virus continue to multiply and increase the chances of being spread to others, but the body can also build up a tolerance to the medicine, making it ineffective and limiting future treatment options, as outlined by the National Institute of Health. Fried warns that even just two weeks without the medication "could be putting people into hospitals, making them lose their jobs because they can't function."

DeSantis could restore the funds right now by activating state emergency reserves. Should he choose not to, Fried says "blood will be on his hands."

"This is bullshit. This is absolute bullshit. Find the damn money," she says. "It is here. It is absolutely unconscionable to think that a state of Florida or any government in the United States at this moment, with this amount of research and the advances that we have, either was intentionally or as a consequence of intentional actions, giving tens of thousands of individuals potentially a death sentence."

The Advocate has reached out to DeSantis's office for comment.