Opinion - It's criminal what Illinois is doing to Medicaid patients with hepatitis C

It's criminal what Illinois is doing to Medicaid patients with hepatitis C

By: OLUWATOYIN ADEYEMI, ANDREW ARONSOHN, BASMATTEE BOODRAM, DANIEL JOHNSON and MAI TUYET PHO 

Every day, Illinois Medicaid patients with hepatitis C are denied access to a simple cure to a disease that jeopardizes their life because of outdated and unconscionable restrictions on who can get this proven treatment.

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes inflammation and scarring of the liver. People who are infected with hepatitis C usually have no or few symptoms for decades until it reaches the end stages of disease, where patients are at risk of liver failure, liver cancer and death. Hepatitis C is a leading cause of liver-related death and need for liver transplantation in the United States. An estimated 150,000 people are affected by hepatitis C in this state alone, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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