Sponsors (2)
Official title: Require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to carry out activities to eliminate hepatitis C virus in the United States.
Introduced June 4, 2025 by Bill Cassidy · Last progress June 4, 2025
The bill makes a large, well‑funded push to eliminate hepatitis C by dramatically expanding testing and no‑cost curative treatment for many Americans and strengthening public‑health capacity, but it does so at multi‑billion dollar federal cost, with complex eligibility rules, administrative burdens, potential impacts on safety‑net financing, and tradeoffs in program flexibility and public‑health approaches.
People with hepatitis C — including Medicaid enrollees, uninsured people, incarcerated individuals, tribal residents, and Medicare beneficiaries — will gain much greater access to curative hepatitis C testing and treatment (including no cost‑sharing for many groups and targeted treatment for incarcerated people) through a nationally funded elimination effort.
State and local public‑health systems, community clinics, and providers — including tribal, correctional, and substance‑use treatment settings — will receive grants, training, technical assistance, and a national public‑awareness campaign to expand screening, prevention, care coordination, and treatment capacity.
Taxpayers and program administrators may benefit from lower per‑patient drug prices and more predictable procurement through subscription purchasing, multi‑year contracts, and dedicated procurement funding plus modest dispensing fees to pharmacies.
Taxpayers and federal budgets face substantially higher federal outlays (multi‑billion dollar appropriations and expanded grant programs) that could increase deficits or require offsets and raise program costs over time.
States, local health departments, correctional systems, hospitals, pharmacies, and community providers will face significant administrative burdens and operational hurdles (opt‑in requirements, audits, data reporting, multi‑year commitments, competitive grant processes and eligibility verification) that could delay or complicate rollout.
Many noncitizens and recently paroled individuals will be excluded or face complicated eligibility verification (the Act enumerates specific lawful noncitizen classes and excludes some parolees under one year), leaving some vulnerable immigrants without access.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Creates an HHS Hepatitis C Elimination Program, funds a subscription purchasing model and state grants ($4.283B), eliminates Part D cost-sharing for DAAs 2027–2031, and restricts eligibility to listed citizenship/noncitizen classes.
Creates a federal Hepatitis C Elimination Program that funds a national strategy, state and local grants, and a subscription-style purchasing program to buy direct-acting antiviral (DAA) hepatitis C treatments for covered populations. It provides $4.283 billion (FY2025, available through FY2031), requires HHS to set program goals and public metrics, and authorizes HHS rulemaking to implement the program. The bill also eliminates Medicare Part D cost-sharing for hepatitis C DAAs for plan years 2027–2031, directs distribution to prisons, Indian Health Service sites, and registered dispensing sites, and restricts use of funds and program benefits to U.S. citizens and specified lawful noncitizen categories (with a rulemaking path for additional eligible classes). It prohibits using other federal drug discount programs (including 340B) for DAAs obtained through the subscription program and funds oversight and audits to enforce that prohibition.