As per reports, health care experts have told the White House that widening the access to prescription drugs by federal and state Medicaid officials will help to cure several thousands of people battling with hepatitis C.

The Public Health Service and President Obama's Advisory Council on H.I.V./AIDS told the administration that the restrictions, such as barring patients who have been treated for alcohol or drug abuse within 12 months, are not sound medical practice.

The New York Times reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also expressed concerns about it. CDC opposed state rules such as requiring patients to have been free of drug or alcohol abuse within 12 months or requiring an infectious disease expert to prescribe the drugs.

As per the guidelines given by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, any patient with chronic hepatitis C should be treated with the new drugs unless they are left with a less than one years to live.

In a letter to Mr. Obama, the advisory council said that limits that are being imposed by some states are ‘unreasonable and discriminatory’, and also lacks support of medical evidence, The Times reported.

Dr. David L. Thomas of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said, “We can cure most patients with as few as 84 pills. It's cheaper to treat patients than to wait for them to develop cirrhosis and complications and then get a liver transplant”.