[ad_1]
A man met with a program manager after driving nearly three hours to his appointment at the Open Arms Healthcare Center on Wednesday, January 23, 2019 in Jackson, Massachusetts. Open Arms provides PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, which is "a way for people who are not HIV positive but are at high risk of acquiring HIV infection by taking a pill every day," according to the CDC .
Jahi Chikwendiu | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Patients enjoying private health insurance will soon be able to get free HIV prevention medications, also called pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP, on the recommendation of a group of experts influencing health care .
The US Preventive Services Task Force has given PrEP a Level A recommendation, which means that insurers will now be required to cover drugs at no cost to their policyholders. Under the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, private health plans are required to cover preventive services for which the working group assigns an "A" or "B" rating.
The recommendation was published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The task force, made up of an independent group of clinicians and scientists, said that he had found convincing evidence that PrEP presented "a substantial benefit in reducing the risk of infection by HIV.
The task force also proposed regular HIV testing for pregnant women and people aged 15 to 65 years.
"The new guidelines show a maturing of evidence and policies in HIV medicine and a growing consensus on the application, not only in the US but around the world," said Dr. Hyman Scott, professor of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. an editorial published Tuesday alongside the JAMA report. He is not a member of the working group.
In the United States, about 1.1 million people are currently living with HIV and nearly 40,000 Americans are contracting the virus each year, according to government data. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PrEP can reduce the risk of infection up to 92% in high-risk individuals who are taking the drug steadily.
This decision comes as President Donald Trump pledged to end the HIV epidemic in the United States by 2030, a goal that public health advocates have encouraged and sought after. For years.
In May, pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences reached an agreement with the Trump administration to donate its Truvada PrEP treatment to 200,000 uninsured people a year until 2025. Without insurance, Truvada typically sells between 1 $ 600 and $ 2,000 a month in the United States.
[ad_2]
Source link