Access to PrEP—without financial barriers—is essential to ending the HIV epidemic and addressing racial disparities in health care.

On March 30, 2023, a federal judge in Texas issued an order in Braidwood v. Becerra, blocking a long-standing Affordable Care Act requirement for health insurance companies to cover many preventative health care services—like HIV-prevention medication PrEP—without cost sharing.

PrEP is a drug that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by close to 100%. According to researchers at Yale and Harvard, ending the prohibition of cost sharing for PrEP will increase HIV transmission among men who have sex with men by at least 17% in the first year alone.

The CDC reported in 2019 that only 23% of people eligible for PrEP were prescribed it, and that only 8% of Black people and 14% of Latinx people eligible for PrEP received it compared to 63% of white people.

The case, now called Kennedy v. Braidwood, is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court.

At its core, this case is about more than just PrEP, it is a direct attack on the foundation of preventive healthcare in the United States and a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act. The preventive services mandate ensures that millions of Americans have access to critical screenings, vaccines, and treatments without financial barriers, dramatically improving public health outcomes. From HIV prevention to cancer screenings, from childhood immunizations to maternal health care, these services save lives, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and prevent the spread of disease. This case is a referendum on whether the United States will continue investing in evidence-based, cost-effective public health strategies.

Amicus Briefs

On June 17, 2023, GLAD Law and law firm Mintz filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA) and the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, urging reversal of the district court order. HIVMA and NASTAD represent thousands of healthcare providers, public officials, and policy experts with expertise in the treatment and prevention of HIV and the demographics and dynamics of the epidemic. In the brief, the experts warn that allowing the order to stand will exacerbate racial health disparities, increase new HIV diagnoses by the tens of thousands, and have devastating consequences on our efforts to end the epidemic. Learn more.

On February 25, 2025, GLAD Law, Lambda Legal, Mintz, alongside leading HIV, LGBTQ+, and healthcare organizations submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, Inc., urging the Court to uphold no-cost access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other critical preventive healthcare services. The brief highlights the devastating public health consequences of undermining access to PrEP, a medication that reduces the risk of HIV transmission by 99% when taken as prescribed. The brief, submitted on behalf of the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and a coalition of HIV and healthcare advocates, details the indisputable medical evidence supporting PrEP and the catastrophic consequences of restricting access. Learn more.