For years patients have seen manufacturer assistance diverted away from their deductibles and out‑of‑pocket maximums, increasing their costs and forcing impossible choices. We thank the subcommittee for urging CMS to act and call on the agency to promptly issue clear, enforceable guidance so patients actually receive the benefit of assistance meant for them.
We can’t imagine a country that is unable to conduct basic surveillance of a serious infectious disease, educate and test people, and link them to appropriate treatment or prevention, including PrEP. That is what would happen if the House Republican bill were to pass. Sadly, these proposals will just continue the instability in our nation’s HIV prevention programs, which are primarily conducted at the state and local levels. We urge Congress to reject them, as they did last year.
We thank the leadership of Sens. Smith and Schiff and Reps. Takano, Balint and Pocan in reintroducing the PrEP Access and Coverage Act,” commented Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “Passage of this bill will greatly expand access to PrEP for people who have health coverage across all payers and create a national grant program that includes community and provider outreach as well as PrEP drugs and associated services for the uninsured. We have a national HIV treatment program, but in order to end HIV, we need a comprehensive national HIV PrEP program.
After a tumultuous year of proposed program cuts and eliminations, Congress has agreed to reject them and instead has maintained funding for domestic HIV prevention and treatment programs on a bipartisan basis. Now, the Trump administration must focus its attention on properly implementing these programs in order to get the nation back on track to end HIV in the U.S.
“While we strongly support the legislation that requires payers to cover PrEP for people who have insurance, ensuring sufficient and stable funding for the CDC so that health departments, community-based organizations and other grantees can implement HIV and hepatitis prevention programs nationwide is also vitally important,” said Carl Schmid, Executive Director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute. “We commend Congresswoman Waters and her colleagues for introducing these bills and urge the Congress to support them so that we can eventually end HIV and hepatitis in the United States.”