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

SectionsTVFeaturedMore from NBC Follow 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. Plan reviews still show many insurers are not in compliance, and we need state insurance regulators to enforce the law and the new guidance.”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. 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.” “If we’re serious about ending the HIV epidemic,” Farrow said, “we have to ensure equal access to PrEP in all communities and not only for the insured.”Follow NBC Out on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram© 2021 NBC UNIVERSAL