Follow 23-year-old Chris King on his morning routine. He wakes up, goes into his bathroom and puts in his contacts. He also swallows a pill.
But it's not just any pill. It's one that a gay man like himself in the 1980s wished into existence – and could have died while waiting for it.
King, like hundreds of thousands of other Americans, takes PrEP – preexposure prophylaxis – daily and by doing so, reduces his risk of contracting HIV through sex by 99%. The club DJ and event producer from New York considers it "kind of like a medical miracle."
But the Supreme Court may soon stop requiring insurers to cover PrEP and other preventive medical care services for free, pending the results of a case regarding the Affordable Care Act it's set to hear; it stems from a group of Texas small businesses that don't want to "encourage homosexual behavior, prostitution, sexual promiscuity and intravenous drug use." The case could render it cost-prohibitive for many who rely on it.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning a large study into potential connections...
