The Biden-Harris administration has a historic opportunity to help end HIV. New, cutting-edge drugs that prevent HIV are hitting the market, but insurance companies are trying to twist the rules to deny access to these remarkable therapies. The White House could stop these abuses and put the country on the right course for decades ahead and prevent hundreds of thousands of new HIV transmissions.
If the administration does not act, patients nationwide will continue to be subject to schemes that lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for the medications they need, risking medical debt or facing treatment delays and lack of adherence. To protect patients, essential health benefits drugs must be rightfully treated with the gravity that their name implies—medications that are “essential” to a healthy life for patients.
For years, greedy insurers and PBMs, who have been in the news lately, have used copay accumulators and other nefarious tactics to inflate patient costs and increase their profits. It’s time for President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary Becerra to do something about it.
Despite the Republican-led success against HIV, some House Republicans have been considering a spending bill that would cut funding for HIV prevention and treatment. Such cuts would not only lead to more preventable infections and deaths — they’d result in more long-term spending by American taxpayers. We have the tools to end HIV. We must not abandon our efforts nor the people and communities most impacted by this potentially deadly infectious disease.
We believe congressional authorization for a new government program is unlikely in the near term, given the program’s price tag and its reliance on a centralized mechanism for purchasing drugs and laboratory services.
A more realistic approach, given these constraints, is for Congress to increase funding at the CDC along with targeted grants to community health centers and Ryan White Program clinics, particularly those that can most effectively increase PrEP uptake among Blacks and Latinos and in the South. It’s possible to end HIV in the United States within the next decade. Lawmakers must act to make it a reality.