Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion
Kids, don’t read this one (updated)

Kids, don’t read this one (updated)

Last updated on: July 14, 2014 at 10:18 am by Jane the Actuary

Kids, don’t read this one (updated) 2014-07-14T10:18:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

(Originally posted July 11th, 2014)

I popped over to The Atlantic just now to see what they had to offer and there it was: “The WHO Wants All Gay Men to Take HIV Prevention Medication.”

This is insane.

The medication in question is Truvada, a once-daily pill, initially used in HIV treatment and now proven effective in preventing new infections among at-risk men. I had read about this a while back but discarded it, but this makes the debate over contraception foolishness. Do you know how much Truvada costs?

$13,000 per year. See this story in the SF Gate for cost information.

That’s $13,000 a year per gay man in the world that the WHO thinks should be spent by — by who? By governments, in most cases, presumably, and by private insurers in the U.S., for the benefit of gay men who won’t use condoms.

If you want to read something even more unsettling, try this article (found via google) from Out.com, which makes it clear that the target are those gay men, apparently the majority, who don’t use condoms, or don’t use them consistently, and who openly say, “I just don’t like them and would rather take my chances with getting infected.”

UPDATE:

According to this article from Healthline, insurers are generally covering preventative Truvada. The rationale is that “PrEP is not intended to be taken forever, . . . and it is much cheaper than treating someone who ends up positive and will likely live a long life on costly antiretroviral medications.” But according to the Atlantic and Out, it is intended to be, if not life-long, then a long-term treatment for the majority of gay men.

And here’s Andrew Sullivan on the topic, from April: insurers generally cover the pill, but on a non-formulary basis, so that the coinsurance is steep. This article from Think Progress explains that, although prescription drugs are one part of the “essential health benefits” required by the ACA, insurers are allowed to develop formularies and make their own decisions on coinsurance.

What I can’t figure out is this: the ACA requires prescription drug coverage — but clearly doesn’t require that insurance cover every drug that’s out there. The eye drops that give you longer eyelashes, for instance, are prescription only, but presumably not covered as they’re not medically necessary. I’m not finding anything online that tells me how the line is drawn for which drugs are “medically necessary” and which ones aren’t — and hence, what types of drugs are mandated by the ACA or not.

Which leads up to this question:

Is Hobby Lobby required by law to cover “preventative” Truvada?

Further update:

One of the commenters on the Atlantic site linked to an article in the Chicago Tribune, from 2012, which adds some startling new information: the actual cost to manufacture this drug is a small fraction of its sticker price.

WHO spokeswoman Sarah Russell said the agency could not recommend specific drugs for prevention, but added: “It needs to be a drug like Truvada that has been developed for prevention purposes.”

Russell said WHO expects Gilead to make Truvada available at a deeply discounted price for prevention programs in some poor and middle-income countries.

“We believe Gilead will bring the price down to about $100 per year per person” in those countries, Russell said in an interview.

Gilead said generic versions of Truvada, costing as little as $8 a month, are already available in 112 countries, including countries hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic such as India, Thailand and South Africa, under special arrangements with 12 Indian generic partners.

The commenter further said the patent expires in 2021.

Which means there are multiple issues: what do you make of gay men asserting they have the “right” to have Society/the government pay for their “preventive medication” that enables them to have condomless sex, because using condoms is unacceptable to them, in the same way as women demand “free” contraception?

And where does it cross the line from “yeah, I guess that’s a reasonable measure” to “You’re insane if you think I’m going to pay that much money for something that enables you to engage in risky behavior!”?

And will $8/month really come to pass in the U.S. after 2021, or will the cost of manufacturing even a generic medication in the U.S., with the tight safety regulations that are driving up even the cost of fairly ordinary vaccines (can’t recall where I read this any longer), far exceed the cost in a place like India?

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 12, 2014

What's the real American sentiment on immigration?

Next Post

July 14, 2014 From the library (just for fun): Eat Chocolate, Lose Weight; New Science Proves You Should Eat Chocolate Every Day, by Will Clower

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What city did Jesus grow up in?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Bethlehem Nazareth Capernaum Jericho