Meeting the Costs of HIV Care

“The message that needs to be communicated to people in power, and it needs to be communicated loud and frequently, is, ‘Look. Here’s the actual human cost of not enacting these kinds of policies. Here’s the potential benefit,’” says Aaron Richterman, M.D., M.P.H.

We spoke with Amy Killelea at NASTAD, a major national health policy advocacy organization, about the priorities she sees in January 2021 and beyond.

Hopes rest on president-elect Biden to fight HIV along with COVID-19, implement a more humane and inclusive approach to health policy, and expand the Affordable Care Act.

Sept. 17, 2020: HIV prevalence gaps between Latinx people and non-Latinx white people; Obamacare awareness and perceptions among HIV clinicians; the relationship between pain and HIV; cancer mortality trends among PLWH.

May 21, 2020: PrEP demographics by health insurance claim data; pediatricians call for better PrEP formulations for teens; weight gain after switching from TDF to TAF; two-drug regimen efficacy when baseline viral load is high.

Giving good HIV care means taking into account the many marginalize identities patients can hold. And, being marginalized often comes with a lot of trauma.

March 26, 2020: Lopinavir/ritonavir falls short against COVID-19; impact of PrEP scale-up on HIV diagnoses; long-term cost-effectiveness of various HIV interventions; disparities in virologic suppression among young people.

Replacing group meetings and public outreach with telehealth consults, Zoom meet-ups, and food/med curbside deliveries are all part of the solutions.

With Truvada going generic soon in the U.S., public health officials will need to make some decisions to make access to both drugs sustainable.

Doctors contemplate the role of housing in health care as people with HIV grow older, but are often poor.