Hepatitis Drug Among the Most Costly for Medicaid

A drug that can cure hepatitis C was one of the top pharmaceutical costs in most states' Medicaid budgets in 2014.

All told, 33 states spent more than $1 billion to treat the disease with Gilead Sciences' Sovaldi, according to data released Tuesday by Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Still, the money spent was enough to treat only 2.4 percent of Medicaid patients infected with the virus.