The HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute is asking insurance regulators in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware to investigate Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield for what we believe is an effort to profit by diverting copay assistance from drug manufacturers meant to assist patients and splitting the funds between itself a third-party vendor.
Congress rejected these massive attacks on HIV prevention last year and we will urge them to do the same again this year. While we are reassured that over 600,000 low-income people currently accessing care and treatment through the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and those using PrEP programs in community health centers can maintain their services, the dismantling of HIV prevention and surveillance and other programs will just lead to more HIV infections and higher health costs down the road.
We deeply thank Chairman Cassidy and Senator Van Hollen for their bipartisan leadership and dedication to eliminating hepatitis C. It has been unacceptable that people with hepatitis C have had to overcome so many discriminatory barriers instituted by state Medicaid programs and insurers to access hepatitis C curative drugs over the past twelve years since the first drug was approved. Additionally, our government has failed to invest in the public health infrastructure needed to increase awareness, testing, and linkage to care and the curative drugs. This bill, if enacted, will finally provide the necessary resources to ensure that more people are diagnosed and linked to no-cost treatment so that we can eventually eliminate hepatitis C.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget released by the Trump administration, which largely maintains funding for existing domestic HIV care, treatment, and PrEP programs, eliminates HIV prevention and surveillance at the CDC, housing, and other programs, amounting to cuts of over $1.5 billion.
“We hope this is one of those instances of ‘mistakes will be made’ and urge President Trump to include funding in his budget to maintain our nation’s HIV response to keep Americans healthy. During his first term, President Trump realized that although we have the tools to end HIV through innovative treatment and prevention medications, the results remained relatively stagnant and by efficiently investing resources in the communities with the highest number of infections, over time we can end HIV. The initiative, which builds upon the existing CDC prevention and Ryan White HIV/AIDS treatment programs, has demonstrated success with a 21-percent reduction in HIV incidence in those jurisdictions that received enhanced funding compared to a 6-percent drop in those that did not. This resulted in 9,500 fewer infections, which saved $5.1 billion in lifetime medical costs.