United States National Hepatitis C Elimination Initiative
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that more than 2 million people in the US are living with hepatitis C. This burden is expected to grow, and despite the availability of effective antiviral therapies, a recent CDC report revealed that only 1 in 3 US adults who had been diagnosed with hepatitis C had been cured. To combat these concerning trends, the White House proposed a National HCV Elimination Plan in their budget for 2023-2034. Supporters of the plan, including CGHE, have mobilized to urge Congress to allocate funds for the program.
Plan Overview
The proposed plan has four key components:
- Identify more cases by expanding access to single-visit, rapid results testing
- Expand access to care by eliminating burdensome requirements for people using Medicaid
- Lower costs by establishing a subscription model wherein the government negotiates lump some medications (aka, “Netflix” model)
- Invest in community health programs that are best suited to deliver care while also working to develop a hepatitis C vaccine
Cost and Lives Saved
After a request from the White House, CGHE partnered with Jagpreet Chhatwal at the Institute for Technology Assessment at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School to perform an analysis of the proposed plan to estimate cost and lives saved. This data was used by the Congressional Office of Management and Budget to demonstrate that the national plan to eliminate hepatitis C could save more than 90,000 lives and nearly $60 billion by 2050.
Ensuring Equity
CGHE director John Ward co-authored a “Viewpoint” article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, published in April 2023, arguing that the US must strive to address health disparities in order to achieve elimination of hepatitis C: “Adopting policies that enable access to current approaches to prevention and treatment, although helpful, will not by themselves achieve health equity. We must also prioritize populations disproportionately affected by HBV and HCV, locate low-threshold prevention and care services in settings that serve persons with high disease burden, and ensure that the systems in place to treat infected individuals and care for at-risk populations do more than pay lip service to the social factors influencing health outcomes.”
The Right Thing to Do
CGHE believes that no one should have to suffer or die from hepatitis C. In the United States, one of the wealthiest and most scientifically advanced countries in the world, to see so much loss of life from a curable disease is unconscionable. When Dr.’s Michael Houghton, Harvey Alter and Charles Rice were awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of the hepatitis C virus in 2020, they set the stage for a cure that should be accessible to all.
Now they are speaking out in support of a national plan: “At the time of our award, the Nobel Committee recognized the immense potential gains in human health stemming from our discovery of hepatitis C virus and the tests and treatment that followed:
It is now possible, for the first time in human history, to foresee a future where the threat of this virus infection is substantially reduced and hopefully soon eliminated.
We could not agree more. All of the essential ingredients needed to realize the future envisioned by the Nobel Committee are in place save one: a national commitment to eliminate hepatitis C.”
