Health Care on the Ballot: What the Election Could Mean for Public Health Funding, Including for HIV and Hepatitis C

Public health, including programs to prevent and treat infectious diseases like HIV and hepatitis C (HCV), is chronically underfunded in the United States. Public health crises like the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the impact that decades of inadequate federal public health investment have had on governmental public health infrastructure, workforce capacity, and technological capabilities, not just for HIV and HCV, but for all public health functions. Unfortunately, like many other appropriations battles in Congress, public health funding has been increasingly politicized—and this problem can be exacerbated during an election year. Congress has both short- and longer-term funding decisions to make over the next several months that could have a big impact on the nation’s ability to address existing and emerging public health threats, including efforts to end the domestic HIV and HCV epidemics.

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