November 26, 2025

Shutdown Ends But ACA Negotiations Continue

After weeks of the same failed vote on the House-passed continuing resolution (CR), a much-scrutinized gang of eight Democrats agreed to a deal combining three year-long appropriations bills with a government funding fix until the end of January 2026.

This CR measure funded the Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Congressional operations for FY2026 but left all other agencies under a short-term CR.

While the measure included a future Senate vote on expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies and a pledge to rehire furloughed workers, these assurances from Republicans lacked enforceable guarantees.

Reopening the government was necessary, but the decision to do so without protecting the ACA premium subsidies comes at a steep cost. By delaying negotiations on these subsidies, Congress has extended uncertainty and deepened the harm already experienced during the shutdown.

The importance of extending subsidies for people with HIV who rely on Marketplace coverage and the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program continues to be a major concern, with loss of affordable coverage potentially disrupting treatment for people with HIV and leading to negative health outcomes.

The path forward is clear. The House and Senate must work together to pass a final spending bill that preserves funding for HIV prevention and treatment to keep the United States on track to end the epidemic once and for all.

TAKE ACTION

Families USA Action on The Importance of Premium Tax Credits with State Fact Sheets

Contact your representative to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits and implement mechanisms that prevent future shutdowns. Additional resource highlighting the importance of enhanced premium tax credits are available on the Families USA website.

HIVMA Action to Save HIV Funding

Urge your representative to reject cuts to, or elimination of, programs vital to HIV prevention, care and treatment and to ending the HIV epidemic and to fully fund federal HIV programs at no less than the levels in the bipartisan Senate FY 2026 LHHS appropriations bill.

SaveHIVFunding World AIDS Day 

SaveHIVFunding has World AIDS Day toolkit resources to help you engage with your members of Congress and more. If you are interested in hosting or being a part of in-district meetings/events, please fill out this survey to help you connect with your legislators.

ACADEMY HAPPENINGS

HIV Service Disruptions

The Emergency HIV Clinical Response Task Force is fielding its second health care provider survey to track HIV and related service disruptions across the country. This data will document disruptions quarterly in order to guide tailored interventions and advocate for safeguards to protect essential services nationwide.

Protecting and Expanding Access to PrEP Coverage

On October 29, the Academy joined NMAC and other HIV service providers to identify challenges that threaten access to HIV prevention services among communities most impacted by HIV. Outcomes from this meeting will include a multi-sector coalition action plan to identify strategies to address policy and system changes that protect and expand PrEP coverage access.

Federal HIV Guidelines and OAR

The Academy celebrates the National Institutes of Health’s commitment to maintaining the federal HIV guidelines under the management of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) and acknowledges the role that health care provider communities played in reversing the June 2025 decision to discontinue support for the guidelines in 2026.

Academy Member Support

The Academy Council for Racial Equity met on November 13 to consider establishing an Academy Transition Support and Resource Network to assist members in a number of ways, including helping those dealing with health concerns, supporting people navigating HIV research hurdles, and assisting those who are facing cuts to public health funding.

Linkage to Care Resources

The Academy’s Southwest chapter is mobilizing to extend linkage to care informational resources for providers to assist patients connecting to HIV treatment and prevention services in Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Use the Keep Americans Covered coalition page for state-specific data and a cost of coverage calculator. Keep Americans Covered is a coalition of the health care community, representing patients, consumers, doctors, hospitals, health insurers and employers, all working together to keep health care affordable for millions of Americans.

A Forbes article describes the new guidance from The State Department regarding global human rights abuses, with instructions to note countries with state sponsored abortion and DEI policies.

APHA and other leading medical, health and patient advocacy groups issued a joint statement on the alarming changes made to the CDC autism website.