Eliminating Hepatitis C Means Treating Prisoners

published on August 31, 2015 by ANNA MARIA BARRY-JESTER, in FiveThirtyEight

Barry Michaelson is one of several people with hepatitis C who have sued this year to get access to new and very expensive treatments for the virus. But Michaelson’s lawsuit, unlike most of the others, isn’t against his insurance company. He’s suing the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

In May, Michaelson and another inmate filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Minnesota prisoners to gain access to new, highly effective drugs for hepatitis C, a virus that’s now essentially curable but can cause cirrhosis, liver failure and cancer if left untreated. In the weeks since, similar lawsuits have been filed by inmates in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.

It wasn’t until 1992 that we could even test for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Now we effectively have a cure, but at about $84,000 a person, it’s one of the most expensive drugs to ever hit the market. Insurers, including Medicaid and Medicare, are paying for treatment only for people with advanced liver disease in most cases, causing experts to push the White House to expand treatment. But prisoners, though they are the only group in the U.S. with a constitutional right to health care, are even more limited in access to treatment.

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© Copyright BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS
St. Paul's Hospital 608–1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 1Y6
Tel: 604-806-8477 | Fax: 604-806-9044
General inquiries: info@bccfe.ca
Media inquiries: communications@bccfe.ca
(Please do not use any of these email addresses to send personal information or book an appointment. To book appointments or contact the H2H clinic, please call 604-416-1517 or fax: 604-564-4893. Do not send your or your client's personal information via email.)

Our work serves clients and communities across British Columbia on lands and waters cared for and nurtured by the many distinct First Nations across the province. The BC-CfE humbly and gratefully acknowledge the stewards of these lands, particularly the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) on whose unceded, traditional and ancestral territories our offices are located.