With a promising new plan to pay for pricey cures, two states set out to eliminate hepatitis C. But cost hasn’t been the biggest problem

For nearly a decade, many experts assumed the biggest obstacle to eliminating hepatitis C was the sky-high cost of the new cures.

So when Washington state and Louisiana signed flashy, unprecedented deals with the pharmaceutical companies that make the medicines back in 2019, and dedicated personnel and money toward the lofty goal, many celebrated. Just last week, the White House held the states up as a potential model for a forthcoming multibillion-dollar national effort with the same aim.

But those states are nowhere near achieving the overarching goals they set, a new STAT investigation reveals. In Washington, the rate of treatment for the state’s Medicaid program now is actually lower than it was before the initiative began.