under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.Hermida suspects he contracted the virus while he was in an open relationship with a male partner before he came to the U.S. In late January 2022, months after his symptoms started, he went to a clinic in New York City that a friend had helped him find to finally get treatment for HIV.
Too sick to care for himself alone, Hermida eventually moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to be closer to family and in hopes of receiving more consistent health care. He enrolled in anclinic that receives funding from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, a federal safety-net plan that serves over half of those in the country diagnosed with HIV, regardless of their citizenship status.His HIV became undetectable after he was connected with case managers. But over time, communication with the clinic grew less frequent, he said, and he didn’t get regular interpretation help during visits with his English-speaking doctor. An Amity Medical Group representative confirmed Hermida was a client but didn’t answer questions about his experience at the clinic.
Hermida said he had a hard time filling out paperwork to stay enrolled in the Ryan White program, and when his eligibility expired in September 2023, he couldn’t get his medication.He left the clinic and enrolled in a health plan through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. But Hermida didn’t realize the insurer required him to pay for a share of his HIV treatment.
In January, the Lyft driver received a $1,275 bill for his antiretroviral — the equivalent of 120 rides, he said. He paid the bill with a coupon he found online. In April, he got a second bill he couldn’t afford.
For two weeks, he stopped taking the medication that keeps the virus undetectable and intransmissible.Then a publication dubbed the two-time All-Star as the NBA’s most overrated player based on an anonymous survey of the league’s players. All Haliburton has done since then is make two last-second game-winners, a buzzer-beater to force overtime and history on Tuesday night.
But perhaps the strangest twist came while he was celebrating his decisive layup with 1.3 seconds left in overtime to eliminate Milwaukee. While Haliburton jumped on the scorer’s table,Though Haliburton acknowledged his father did the wrong thing and the elder Haliburton apologized on social media for his overexuberance, he was still banned from attending all Pacers games — home and away — indefinitely.
During those eight games, John Haliburton generated his own celebrity at local watering holes. He savored the 4-1 series victory over top-seeded Cleveland and two more wins at New York as the Pacers took the lead in the finals conference before his reappearance Tuesday — in a suite at the top of the lower bowl, located behind the basket closest to the Pacers bench.“My dad is just fine. He lives just fine, he’s watching the game in a beautiful home or he finds his way into a sports bar with a bunch of Pacers fans,” Haliburton said, drawing laughter. “There was a lot of commentary around him, especially right after, which I think some was warranted and some went a little too far, but I think that’s just sports and that’s just talking heads. What can you do? But I don’t think there was any emotion to it.”