We commend the Biden-Harris administration for increasing PrEP uptake using all the tools at its disposal. Patient cost-sharing has been a significant barrier for Medicare beneficiaries. With this new NCD, people on Medicare can join those with private insurance who can access PrEP without cost-sharing. Now we have to make sure these policies are properly implemented and enforced.

We sincerely thank Senate Labor HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin and Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito and their colleagues for demonstrating their continued commitment to ending HIV in the U.S. While working within the confines of an extremely restrictive budget, they crafted a spending bill that prioritizes the domestic response to HIV. However, given that the House version of the bill includes sizeable funding cuts, program eliminations, and divisive policy riders, we realize passage of this spending bill is far from reality. House Republicans must come to the table and support bills, such as this one, that can pass the Congress and be signed by the president.

A coalition of 63 organizations dedicated to ending HIV has called upon the Biden administration to issue updated guidance to insurers to ensure compliance with the latest United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), which includes long-acting regimens. In a letter addressed to Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), the groups highlight the urgency of ensuring broad and equitable access to PrEP free of insurance barriers.

Instead of providing new investments in ending HIV by increasing funding for testing, prevention programs, such as PrEP, and life-saving care and treatment, House Republicans are again choosing to go through a worthless exercise of cutting programs that the American people depend on and will never pass.