California has become the first state to require health insurance plans to cover at-home tests for sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, chlamydia and syphilis — which could help quell the STI epidemic that has raged nearly unchecked as public health departments have focused on COVID-19.
Even before COVID, sexually transmitted infections hit all-time highs in the U.S. and California for six years in a row, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
