PrEP, the HIV prevention pill, must now be totally free under almost all insurance plans - NBC News

In a move that is expected to prove transformative to the national HIV-prevention effort, the federal government has announced that almost all health insurers must cover the HIV prevention pill, known as PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, with no cost sharing — including for the drug itself and, crucially, for clinic visits and lab tests.

This means the entire experience of maintaining a prescription to Truvada or Descovy, the two approved forms of PrEP, should now be totally free for almost all insured individuals.

These additional requirements, which will lift what has likely been a substantial barrier to PrEP access for individuals with low income in particular, are the result of the U.S.

Under the Affordable Care Act, such a rating for preventive health care services, including tests for various diseases such as HIV itself, means they must be covered by almost all insurers at no cost to the insured patient.  .

It is possible that total elimination of out-of-pocket costs for a PrEP prescription on the part of insured individuals may improve use of PrEP among Black and Latino men who have sex with men in particular

In other words, if people can access PrEP at a lower cost or for free, they are more likely to take it. 

While the future is looking bright for access to PrEP on the part of people with health insurance, a fiscal crisis awaits clinics providing this form of HIV prevention to the uninsured population, as NBC News previously reported

Gilead readily provides PrEP for free to lower-income people who lack health insurance, but the pharmaceutical company does not cover the associated clinic visits and lab tests

Leaders at these clinics expect access to PrEP for people lacking health insurance to narrow as a result, possibly counterbalancing the improved access their insured counterparts will now enjoy thanks to the new federal guidance

Kenyon Farrow, managing director of advocacy and organizing at the activist group PrEP4All, called upon the federal government “to look for ways to cover people who are uninsured, particularly in non-Medicaid-expansion states, to be able to access PrEP services.”