Comment on CMS-2026-2081-0001
The AIDS InstituteSupportAdvocacy
Summary: The AIDS Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group, supports maintaining a robust and comprehensive Essential Health Benefits (EHB) framework. They argue against narrowing the scope of benefits to save costs, urging CMS to ensure affordability for patients, enforce compliance against discriminatory plan designs, and maintain federal-state joint design flexibility.
The Affordable Care Act has played a pivotal role in expanding coverage and guaranteeing essential health benefits for people living with HIV and other serious, complex, and chronic conditions. After more than a decade of implementation, we believe there are ways to make changes to the EHB framework without compromising access and affordability for patients. In response to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) request for information we submit comments with insight as advocates for individuals for whom continuity of care, accessibility of comprehensive coverage, and affordability of prescription medications are truly essential. Our complete comments can be read in the attached document.