Jonathan Van Ness endorses Elizabeth Warren after paying £2800 to replace HIV medication

Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness has said that the high cost of HIV medication has prompted him to endorse US presidential hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The TV personality, 32, revealed he is living with HIV in an interview with the New York Times last weekend.

Van Ness confirmed that he would be backing Democratic candidate Warren in an interview on Wednesday, later explaining that her “Medicare for All” policy has brought him on side.

“The moment I knew I was endorsing @ewarren was last month when I misplaced my HIV meds,” he wrote on Twitter. “It cost $3500 [approximately £2,800] to replace them out of pocket with “amazing” platinum level insurance.

“Healthcare shouldn’t be for profit ever, it’s a human right.”

He then added in a second tweet: “To be clear I’m on literally ONE daily pill to manage my HIV infection.”

Warren, who states on her campaign website that “health care is a basic human right,” shared a video of her and Van Ness speaking on the phone.

“I’m glad we’re going to be in this fight together side by side,” she told him in the short clip. “I love the endorsement and for all the right reasons.”

She captioned the post on Twitter: “Thank you for our support, @jvn! Shoulder to shoulder, we’re going to fight for #MedicareForAll.

“No one should be able to make a profit off of denying people health care – and together, we’ll win.”

A public survey from Quinnipiac University recently put Warren ahead of former Vice President Joe Biden for the first time.

She was favoured by 27 percent of those polled, while Biden was favoured by 25 percent. Senator Bernie Sanders came in third place with 16 percent.

Van Ness, who describes himself as a healthy and proud member of the “beautiful HIV positive community,” has written about his diagnosis in new book Over The Top in a bid to break the stigma around the virus.

He said he felt compelled to speak publicly because of LGBT discrimination in the US.

“It was really difficult because I was like, ‘Do I want to talk about my status?’” he told the New York Times.

“And then I was like, ‘The Trump administration has done everything they can to have the stigmatisation of the LGBT community thrive around me.’”

The book also addresses his struggles as a former addict and a survivor of sexual abuse, issues which he said “need to be talked about.”