This is a great victory for healthcare in our country and for everyone who believes in prevention, including the Trump administration. This legal attack was initiated by extreme right-wing social conservatives who sought to make sure that gay men and others could not access PrEP to prevent HIV. We are very pleased the Court upheld the coverage requirement. Now we must focus on making sure insurers comply with and regulators enforce the law, particularly with new, long-acting forms of PrEP. This victory is all the more important now that the Trump administration is seeking to defund much of CDC’s HIV and hepatitis prevention programs. While we continue to oppose those proposed funding cuts, we can rest assured that at least for people with insurance, preventive services such as PrEP, HIV and hepatitis testing will be covered at no cost.
FDA Approves Twice-Yearly HIV Prevention Drug
Today marks a monumental advance in HIV prevention. Congratulations to the many researchers who spent nineteen years to get to today’s approval, backed up by the long-term investment needed to get the drug to market. Long-acting PrEP is now not only effective for up to six months but also improves adherence and will reduce HIV infections—if people are aware of it and payers, including private insurers, cover it without cost-sharing as a preventive service.
Sens. Cassidy & Van Hollen introduce historic bill to eliminate hepatitis C
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.
Trump Budget Ends All CDC HIV Prevention Programs, While Maintaining Care, Treatment, and PrEP
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.
Massive Budget Cuts Proposed in “Skinny Budget”
In response to the release of the “skinny budget” released by the White House today, Carl Schmid, executive director of the HIV+Hepatitis Policy Institute, issued the following statement: “While there are still many unknowns, what we do know is the budget the Trump administration proposed today contains massive cuts that will damage the future health of our country. On the positive side, it appears that most existing HIV care and treatment programs, including most components of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program and its part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative, would remain intact. If true, this marks a reversal from the leaked draft budget which eliminated the EHE initiative. However, the budget completely ignores HIV prevention at CDC, which includes surveillance, testing, PrEP programs, and linkage to care. It is not known if it is zeroed out, cut, or moved to another part of HHS, as has previously been reported. The Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative is also not on the list of programs being eliminated, but since it is not a detailed budget this is not fully known. The cuts to the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program would impact critical services such as dental reimbursements, training, and community-driven implementation research.”