Truvada seemed like the first contemporary bombshell to drop in the war to end AIDS. Though it has been on the market since 2004 as a treatment method, its approval by the FDA in 2012 to be used as prevention inserted it into everyday gay life and vernacular, thus giving us "PrEP." Now, with Donald Trump's new proposed healthcare plan, the drug could become difficult to afford for many Americans.
According to TIME Money, PrEP costs about $1500 a month without insurance, and anywhere from $0 to $500 a month with a coverage plan. But people who aren't covered can go through state drug assistance programs (DAPs) to help cut costs for access to things like PrEP. Therein lies the problem. DAPs only started covering PrEP after the Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to insure people using them. If Trump's new plan passes, which would phase out the federal money used to expand Medicaid starting in 2020, and PrEP could become too costly again for many people to access.
Related | Second Man on PrEP is Infected with HIV
While Truvada being used as prevention hasn't come with its own stipulations - an outcry from parts of the LGBTQ community, and people still contracting HIV while on it - having something like this in the arsenal in the war on AIDS is imperative to eradicating the virus. Read the full TIME Money article, here.
