AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)

AHF is led by one of its co-founders, Michael Weinstein, described by the New York Times as an “ex-Trotskyite.” Weinstein has become a controversial figure among AIDS activists because of his issue stances, including opposing the use of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), an HIV infection preventive. ¹

The vast majority of the group’s revenue comes from its network of clinics and pharmacies that treat over 41,000 patients in the U.S. Most of their patients have their insurance claims paid by the government through Medicaid. ¹

Advocacy

Drug Prices

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has previously supported unsuccessful ballot measures in California and Ohio that would impose price controls on prescription pharmaceuticals. ^{2 3}

In 2016, AHF supported California Proposition 61, which would have capped California state agency prescription drug spending at the level of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. AHF contributed the vast majority of the $19.9 million spent in support of the measure. ² The measure failed by a vote of 53% to 47%. ²

In 2017, AHF financially supported Ohio Issue 2. The measure would have limited the amount Ohio state agencies spend on prescription drugs to the amount the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs spends. AHF provided nearly all of the $18.29 million spent by Ohio Taxpayers for Lower Drug Prices, the group organized to support the ballot initiative. ³ The measure failed by a vote of 79% to 21%. ³

Opposition to AIDS Vaccine Research

In 2008, AHF called for an end to U.S. government funding for an AIDS vaccine. Instead, it called for the U.S. government to focus on treatments for HIV and AIDS. It believes that supporting AIDS and HIV treatments offered the best use of taxpayer dollars and points out that every potential AIDS vaccine failed in clinical trials. ⁴

Opposition to PrEP

AHF is “virtually alone” among public health experts and AIDS activists in opposing PrEP, a preventive drug for those at very high risk of HIV infection. AHF founder Michael Weinstein told the New York Times believes that PrEP will discourage condom use and encourage users to engage in risky sexual activity. ¹

Housing Policy

In 2017, AHF supported Measure S in Los Angeles, which would have curbed development in the city over two years. The measure failed at the polls. ⁵ It also opposed California Senate Bill 35, a law to limit environmental and planning reviews for housing construction which passed the California legislature and was signed into law. ⁵

Also in 2017, the organization created an affordable housing division. Its first project was renting out the old Madison Hotel and renting out rooms for $400 a month. It prioritized those suffering from HIV and other serious illnesses. ⁵

In 2018, AHF joined ACCE Action and the Eviction Defense Network in filing a proposition to repeal California’s Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, which limits the ability of cities and counties to impose rent control. ⁶ It made the ballot as Proposition 10 and was defeated by a vote of 59% to 41%. AHF provided the vast majority of the money spent in favor of the proposition. ⁷

In 2024, the state of California voted on Proposition 33, which would have allowed local governments to enact rent control. The proposition would have repealed the Costa-Hawkins Act that exempted single-family housing, condominiums, and housing built after 1995 from rent-control measures. The AIDS Health Care Foundation campaigned for the measure. This was the third time the AIDS Healthcare Foundation had worked to place a rent control-related proposition before California voters since 2018. Proposition 33 failed 66.6% to 38.4%. ⁸

Single-Payer Healthcare

In 2019, AHF came out in favor of legislation that would create a government-run single-payer healthcare system in the U.S. AHF also launched an online petition drive in support of the legislation. ⁹

Foreign Affairs

In 2024, AHS partnered with the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi to celebrate AHS providing HIV and AIDS care to 2 million people in 46 countries, including India. ¹⁰

Healthcare Services

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) owns and operates a network of clinics around the world that have treated over a million patients globally. It is the largest nongovernmental AIDS treatment organization in the world. The first clinic opened in February 1991. ¹¹

AHF also owns and operates a nationwide chain of pharmacies. The first one was opened in October 2000. The pharmacy employs specialists who are trained in HIV treatment which meets the needs of HIV patients nationwide. ¹¹

AHF runs a Medicare managed-care program in parts of California, Florida, and Georgia for people who have been diagnosed with HIV. It also runs a Medicaid managed-care program in California. ¹²

AHF actively recruits for new patients. It has a sales team that is responsible for finding new patients, whose medical bills are mostly paid for by government programs such as Medicaid. To do this, AHF representatives scour homeless shelters, hosts parties at gay clubs, and deploys mobile testing vans to HIV hot spots. AHF sales reps also cultivate networks with local doctors. Salespeople are reportedly compensated based on the number of patients they recruit, receiving $300 commissions for the first two anti-retroviral prescriptions filled by a newly recruited patient. ¹

In 2024, California voters adopted Proposition 34, restricting the ability of certain health care providers that participate in a California state prescription-drug subsidy program to spend on matters other than health services. ¹³ Critics contended that Proposition 34 was directed at curbing the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s political and advocacy activities. ¹⁴

Affiliates and Partners

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has a network of affiliates called the AHF Federation. Among the members are:

• AID Atlanta: which provides services to over 50,000 people per year in the Atlanta metro area¹⁵
• The AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland: Cleveland, Ohio-based organization¹⁵
• WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease): Oakland-based organization which works to improve the lives and health of women and girls who suffer from HIV¹⁵
• AIDS Center of Queens County: Queens-based organization which has served over 9,500 patients¹⁵
• South Side Help Center: Chicago-based organization which has been around since 1987¹⁵
• AIDS Outreach Center: Fort Worth, Texas-based organization which has been around since 1986¹⁵
• CALOR: Chicago-based organization founded in 1990 which is targeted towards the Hispanic population¹⁵

Leadership

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) president and co-founder is Michael Weinstein. Weinstein is an ex-Marxist who formed an organization in the 1970s called the Lavender and Red Union, a far-left organization targeted towards gays. The organization later merged with the Spartacist League, a gay-friendly Trotskyite organization. After Weinstein had a falling out with the Spartacists, he went into business for a short time. ¹⁶

Weinstein, with his best friend Chris Brownlie, would form the AIDS Hospice Foundation in 1989, which focused on providing AIDS patients a respectful, peaceful atmosphere to die. Brownlie would die in that same year of AIDS-related complications. ¹

In 1990, the AIDS Hospice Foundation would become the AIDS Healthcare Foundation as anti-retroviral drugs became available. It changed its mission from hospice care to providing healthcare for those living with HIV/AIDS. ¹

The senior vice president of AHS is Peter Reis. Reis previously worked as a financial analyst for a Los-Angeles-based HIV medical and testing clinic. Before becoming senior vice president, Reis was a financial analyst, health plan administrator, director of business development and chief financial officer of AHF. ¹⁷

Controversies

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) has been previously accused of alleged unethical business practices. Such allegations include accusations of the AHF using “union-busting” tactics, overbilling government insurers, and forcing doners into denying grants to institutional rivals. AHF has denied all such allegations. ¹⁶

In 2015, three former managers sued AHF alleging it defrauded Medicare and Medicaid of $20 million. The lawsuit alleged that patients were paid $50 if they used AHF services. ¹⁸

In 2019, a California state senator asked the California Attorney General to investigate if the AIDS Healthcare Foundation committed fraud with funds from the 340B Drug Discount program, where pharmaceutical companies sell drugs at a discount to providers who offer the drugs to patients at the standard price. The savings for the provider is supposed to be used to improve staffing and services, but California State Senator Ben Huseo (D) worried that AHF was using the funding to support lobbying, which is illegal. AHF had previously had its ability to participate in the 430B program rescinded in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after AHF declined to provide financial documentation. ¹⁹

In November 2022, the AHF issued a statement condemning the pharmaceutical industry – namely the major Covid-19 producers, Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – for their “manipulative tactics to force countries to choose between lifesaving medicines or their economies taking a financial hit by drug companies threatening to withdraw investments.” This was in response to reports by Politico which claimed that between January 2020 and September 2022, European Commission (EC)officials met with members of pharmaceutical lobby groups over 360 times whereas civil society groups that claimed to advocate for “vaccine equity” met only 60 times with EC officials during that same period. In addition, the report further states that the largest of these pharmaceutical lobbying groups had spent over 30.7 million euros to lobby within the EU between 2020 and 2021. During their statement, AHF president Michael Weinstein stated, “We urge governments to address this conduct immediately as a threat to national and global health security – particularly during crises like the Covid-19 pandemic.” ²⁰

In 2023, the Los Angeles Times ran an expose of AHF for publicly advocating for tenant protections while secretly evicting residents in its housing projects and for having harsh conditions within its apartments. The Times alleged that AHF had 1,400 residents who “live in squalid conditions,” including in apartments infested with roaches and bedbugs, that have failing heating and plumbing systems, and that have high numbers of building code and health complaints. The Times also reported that AHF would evict residents for only being in debt by a few hundred dollars. ²¹

In 2024, California voters adopted Proposition 34, restricting the ability of certain health care providers that participate in a California state prescription-drug subsidy program to spend on matters other than health services. ¹³ Critics contended that Proposition 34 was directed at curbing the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s political and advocacy activities. ¹⁴

Financials

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) gets most of its funding through its healthcare services. The bulk of its money comes from its pharmacies. It is a participant in the 340B Drug Discount program, which allows it to buy drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies at a 35% discount. But the discount is not passed on to insurers who must pay the full 100% of retail. It allows pharmacies to keep 35% of the drug cost as a roundabout way to subsidize drugs for the poor. ¹⁶

According to AHF’s 2022 tax filing, it generated 2.1 billion in total revenue while reporting $1.9 billion in expenses. ²²

In 2022, AHF spent over $1.4 billion on AHF pharmacy services to fill prescriptions at its facilities for predominantly HIV-related cases, over $230 million on AHF managed care services to provide care for HIV patients in California, and over $88 million to provide housing. The majority of its revenue (over $1.8 billion) came from its pharmacy program. ²²

Additionally, AHF made grants to 19 organizations in 2022, including a $30,000 grant to the AIDS Service Center of Lower Manhattan, a $30,000 grant to Damien Center Inc., and a $25,000 grant to Beacon 360 Management Inc. ²²