Congress: Include the Cure Hepatitis C Act in health legislative package
September 2025
Big Cities Health Coalition (BCHC) and more than 100 organizations are asking Congressional leadership to include the Cure Hepatitis C Act of 2025 (S.1941) in the broader health legislative package.
At least 2.4 million — and as many as 4 million people in the United States are chronically infected with hepatitis C, often referred to as a “silent killer.” Chronically infected individuals may be asymptomatic for years while the virus damages their liver. They may also develop other chronic conditions like diabetes and kidney disease. Left undetected and untreated, hepatitis C may progress to liver cirrhosis, liver cancer, and potentially even death.
Diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C can avoid all those downstream consequences—for every one million people cured of hepatitis C in ten years, 34,000 cases of liver cancer, 2,500 liver transplants, and 24,000 deaths can be prevented.
With oral medications that have been on the market for over 10 years and cure over 95 percent of patients in just 8 to 12 weeks, the tools are available to save the lives of many Americans if Congress acts now.
The high number of individuals unaware of their disease status, the barriers to screening and treatment, and the cost of these medications are the primary impediments to hepatitis C elimination. However, Congress can act to address these challenges, save the lives of many Americans living with hepatitis C, and reduce the significant health costs associated with treating those who develop liver cancer and require liver transplants.
The Cure Hepatitis C Act, which the Congressional Budget Office found saves $6.5 billion in the 10-year budget window, contains the following components:
Similar approaches taken by the states of Louisiana, Washington, and Texas have made a great deal of impact in reducing the number of people with hepatitis C. This legislation provides a blueprint to save lives and reduce federal healthcare spending by testing and treating individuals living
with hepatitis C. The time to act is now before hepatitis C progresses to more costly and complicated liver diseases for many Americans
