More than 7,500 people with HIV/AIDS have been excluded from the government’s new nationwide health plan, the SFS. Hoy explains that more troubling is that funding for anti-retroviral medicines is due to run out in 2009. Presidential AIDS Council (COPRESIDA) director Dr. Humberto Salazar explained that all HIV/AIDS patients are excluded from the program, which constitutes discrimination. Salazar called for these patients to be included in the SFS, or face the equivalent of a death sentence. Salazar criticized the high cost of imported medicines from leading pharmaceutical companies, and said that selling these drugs at such high prices violates a person’s right to life.