Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom in Leon County denied the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s request for an emergency injunction to stop the DeSantis administration from implementing reductions to Florida’s AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The ruling allows emergency rules to take effect that dramatically cut eligibility for the program that helps people with HIV and AIDS purchase life-saving drugs. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the largest nonprofit AIDS organization in the world, had sought to halt the changes while challenging them in court.
“The Department’s alleged emergency rulemaking justification is fiscal: absent altering the eligibility restrictions for ADAP, funding for the entire program could be exhausted,” AHF attorney Louise Wilhite-St Laurent wrote in the petition. The foundation filed a new challenge in state administrative court over three emergency rules the Florida Department of Health issued for the AIDS Drug Assistance Program. The AHF and two unnamed people served by the ADAP program are named plaintiffs in the case.
The emergency rules issued February 26 reduced eligibility for the program from 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $63,840 annually, to just 130%, or about $20,748 annually. The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors estimates that about 16,000 Florida residents who benefit from ADAP would be harmed by the change. The Department of Health cited a $120 million funding shortfall as justification for the emergency measures.
“This two-month purposeful delay, alone, undermines the finding of a true emergency,” Wilhite-St Laurent wrote, noting that DOH internal documents show the agency first discussed the need for emergency rules to address the purported $120 million funding shortfall at least as early as December 2025. The state agency waited until February 2026, after the AHF filed an administrative challenge in state court, before issuing its first emergency rule. Florida is not alone in reducing coverage, as at least 18 states are considering reductions to their ADAP programs, which are funded in part by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program.
“The legal maneuvering every time we get even close to making a meaningful progress in litigation, discovery, or any of the actual issues in this case, from our perspective, every single time a maneuver. Every time. We get so close, the department maneuvers some way. Legal gymnastics is what I would phrase it as. And from petitioners’ perspective, the behavior is borderline outrageous,” Wilhite-St Laurent told Administrative Law Judge W. David Watkins. She argued that the emergency rules were issued just as AHF was poised to depose DOH staff in its challenge to the first emergency rules.
The Legislature responded to the ADAP reductions by amending HB 697 to include $31 million for ADAP through June 30. The bill requires the DOH to return eligibility for the program to 400% of the poverty level and specifically bans the agency from providing premium assistance so insured ADAP clients can purchase medications through their health insurance policies. Instead, the state can only provide medications to clients through direct distribution.
HB 697 passed the Legislature on March 12 and was sent to Gov. Ron DeSantis. He has until April 2 to veto it, sign it, or allow it to become law without his signature, with the bill taking effect upon becoming law.