The Biden administration says it is appealing a D.C. federal judge’s decision to nix a 2021 rule that allowed insurers to exclude prescription manufacturer coupons from counting toward patients’ deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums.
“We can’t comprehend why the Biden administration, which has championed access and affordability of prescription drugs for the American people, would appeal this decision,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “By siding against patients who depend on prescription drugs and with insurers, they are allowing insurers to ‘double bill’ and extract more money from patients and 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,” Schmid adds.
The Health and Human Services department plans to appeal a federal judge’s order to withdraw a Trump-era rule on copay assistance programs that was opposed by drug industry-backed patient groups.
Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., is touting a U.S. House of Representatives vote of 109-324 against an amendment to the Labor and Health and Human Services appropriation bill that would have eliminated the HHS Minority HIV/AIDS Fund as a major victory. “It is time for the House leadership to scrap their divisive plans, which clearly do not enjoy support from a majority of the Congress, and instead focus on appropriation bills that can pass and are in line with the budget agreement, as the Senate has done,” Schmid stated after the vote on November 14.
A little over one-third of people nationwide who could benefit from PrEP were on it in 2022, but there continue to be major disparities among white, Black, and Latino Americans, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “It is a huge disparity,” Carl Schmid, a gay man who is the executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute, told the Bay Area Reporter. “I think we need outreach to the community — the Black community, the Latino community, women. I think right now there probably isn’t enough.”