I have an uncle who has AIDS from IV drug use and got out of prison a few years ago and evidently managing it, despite the whole felon thing. He does get some benefits IIRC from the VA. I know he’s on some pills, don’t know if it’s the whole cocktail or what. (I know that unlike everybody else in my whole damned family who needs stuff, my dad isn’t paying for it.) I’ll find out how he affords it and gets back to you - wouldn’t be surprised if it was some charity.
ETA - he does have AIDS and not just HIV, which any of his siblings (all in their 60’s-80’s) will tell you by looking you right in the eyes and saying very slowly “FULL BLOWN AIDS”. It’s a little bit like a made for TV movie.
There are a number of people who have lived for a long time while being HIV-positive. The longest-lived one seems to be someone named David Patient, who has been HIV-positive since 1983. One website claims that the percentage of people who live for a long time without ever progressing from being HIV-positive to dying of AIDS is about .3% of all HIV-positive people. Some of those people apparentlly never even needed drugs. Think of AIDS and HIV as being like an extremely virulent kind of cancer. There is some small chance that drugs, surgery, and radiation will cure you. There is even a tiny chance that you will recover without any medical intervention. That doesn’t affect the fact that it probably will eventually kill you, although you may live long enough that something else will kill you.