AHF Launches Statewide Ad Campaign Challenging Florida Medicaid Officials on HIV Care Contract

In addition to the Florida Medicaid/HIV care contract protest set for Tuesday in Ft. Lauderdale, AHF advocates also kicked off a statewide newspaper advocacy ad campaign with a full-page, full color ad which ran in five major daily newspapers in Florida on Sunday, April 8th.

The ad, with the headline, “Why Are Florida Medicaid Officials Disrupting Healthcare Coverage for People Living with HIV?”, ran in the ‘Miami Herald,’ the ‘Sun-Sentinel’ in Ft. Lauderdale, the ‘Tallahassee Democrat,’ the ‘Tampa Bay Times’ and the ‘Florida Times-Union,’ in Jacksonville.

The advocacy ads included several alarming statistics about HIV in Florida including the following facts:

  • Nearly 5,000 people in Florida were infected with HIV in 2016 alone, which means one out of every eight new HIV infections in the United States occurred in Florida.
  • South Florida leads the nation in new HIV diagnoses at 38.7 new infections per every 100,000 people. In contrast, the overall rate in the United States is 12.3 new infections per every 100,000 people.
  • Nearly 136,000 Floridians are estimated to be living with HIV, but one in six is still not aware of his or her HIV-positive status.
  • More than 30,000 Floridians currently living with HIV are not receiving care for their infection.

The ad urged readers to go to the website: HIVcare.org/Florida to learn more and how you can support those living with HIV.

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