"We can’t comprehend why the Biden administration, which has championed access & affordability of prescription drugs for the American people, would appeal this decision. By siding against patients who depend on prescription drugs & with insurers, they are allowing insurers to ‘double bill’ and extract more money from patients & drug manufacturers by implementing copay accumulators. The court’s decision is very clear: copay assistance for prescription drugs without a generic equivalent must now count for patients."

“While we appreciate the sustained funding for some domestic HIV and hepatitis programs, we are devastated by the proposal to eliminate the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “We were on a trajectory to end HIV by ensuring all people have access to care and treatment, and prevent new infections through increasing access to PrEP, but now all those efforts will be lost. This bill cannot stand as is.”

The HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute and 24 other HIV and hepatitis organizations filed an amicus brief in support of the U.S. government in Braidwood Management v. Becerra, the challenge to the ACA’s preventive services coverage requirement, arguing, “A wholesale invalidation of the coverage requirement for USPSTF’s recommendations would strike a critical, unnecessary, and costly blow to the battle to end HIV, hepatitis, and other infectious diseases.”

The HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute has released a report modeling the resources needed to fund a national PrEP program to cover the cost of medications, associated labs, and prescriber time for the uninsured along with necessary provider and community outreach to increase uptake, estimating the cost at $521 million for the first year and $6.18 billion over ten years.

"This situation is completely unacceptable. We have a cure for a serious infectious disease, but people who have taken the time to get tested and know they have hepatitis C are not being cured," commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. "The vast majority of these people have health coverage but payers such as private insurers, state Medicaid programs, and Medicare are erecting barriers to patient access."