Medicaid expansion linked to rising PrEP use, improved HIV prevention

Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) reduces the risk of getting HIV by approximately 99% when taken as prescribed. Medicaid expansion may be an effective policy tool to increase PrEP access for low-income individuals; however, racial, gender and structural barriers limit access, according to a study published in Health Affairs in November, led by Elizabeth Stone, Ph.D., MSPH, from the Rutgers Center for Health Services Research at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.

Stone and her team analyzed PrEP prescription data in all 50 states between 2012 and 2023.

“In the first year after a state expanded Medicaid, [approximately] one new person was getting PrEP relative to a new HIV diagnosis,” Stone said in a recent video interview with Managed Healthcare Executive.

Stone and her colleagues were able to observe prescription rates up to nine years out from expansion. She said they found that the longer states had Medicaid expansion in place, the more they saw PrEP prescriptions ramp up.

“For the first states that expanded Medicaid in 2014, right at the beginning, it was closer to 15 people who were getting PrEP for each new HIV diagnosis.”