Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, noted in a statement Wednesday (Nov. 6) Trump announced in his 2019 State of the Union speech the HIV epidemic would be eliminated within 10 years in the United States, leading to the administration’s Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.
Ending HIV and hepatitis cannot happen without a comprehensive healthcare system that includes robust private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare programs, upholding non-discrimination protections, and combating stigma and disparities. Healthcare access and affordability, particularly for prescription drugs, are critically important. We will continue to fight to ensure all payers provide the drugs people need at a price they can afford. Of immediate concern for the new administration will be ensuring that copay assistance patients receive to afford their drugs will count towards their out-of-pocket cost obligations. We look forward to working with President-elect Trump on ensuring that the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative is fully funded and expanded in order to fulfill the goal of ending HIV in the United States. In recent years, House Republicans have proposed to eliminate funding for the program.
“With low uptake of PrEP among the communities most impacted by HIV, this insurance coverage requirement with zero cost-sharing will help jumpstart the use of more effective forms of PrEP and lead to fewer HIV transmissions,” Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute said in a statement last Monday (Oct. 21). “The updated USPSTF recommendation is not drug-specific, but rather for PrEP in general to prevent HIV, which includes ‘effective antiretroviral therapy.’ This will be important as new, longer-acting PrEP drugs become available.”
HIV+ Hepatitis Policy Institute’s Schmid said the Biden administration was receptive to the group’s lobbying for the elimination of cost-sharing for the drug. “Without it, we feel some insurers would continue to only cover daily oral PrEP and not provide PrEP users with the choice they need,” he said. “With up to a third of privately insured PrEP users still being charged cost-sharing, we must ensure that both federal and state regulators vigorously enforce PrEP coverage requirements.”
“With low uptake of PrEP among the communities most impacted by HIV, this insurance coverage requirement with zero cost-sharing will help jump-start the use of more effective forms of PrEP and lead to fewer HIV transmissions,” said Carl Schmid, executive director of HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “We are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for responding to our request to issue this guidance. Without it, we feel some insurers would continue to only cover daily oral PrEP and not provide PrEP users with the choice they need. With up to a third of privately insured PrEP users still being charged cost-sharing, we must ensure that both federal and state regulators vigorously enforce PrEP coverage requirements.”