Priority on Propriety in Viagra Veto

Its no secret that Medicare is hurtling toward insolvency. The government-funded program cant even afford to pay for some life- saving drugs and others with genuine therapeutic benefits.

Thank goodness, then, that the House of Representatives finally woke up and realized that, in an era of scarce dollars and gaping budget deficits, there are limits to the bills for truly unnecessary drugs that taxpayers should be asked to foot.

The House has removed Viagra, Cialis and other popular Erectile dysfunction drugs from Medicare prescription coverage starting in January.

But just because a drug is popular doesnt mean the government should pay for it.

Last year, impotence agents made the list of drugs to be funded by Medicare in 2006. The muffled cry from a few outraged taxpayers was largely ignored by Capitol Hill.

The growl became a roar in May when a New York state audit found that during the past five years, 198 convicted sex offenders all of them considered the highest risk level had been receiving Viagra courtesy of Medicaid. Some 52 sex offenders had received the drugs in Virginia.

This embarrassment very publicly raised anew the wisdom of taxpayers shelling out for anyones Viagra.

Medicaid pays out $38 million annually for Erectile dysfunction drugs. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has also introduced a bill to get Viagra off the Medicare drug list, says that both Medicare and Medicaid are slated to spend $2 billion on the drugs over the next decade.

That money could, and should, be spent more wisely.

House critics argued that Viagra and its pharmaceutical brethren are important for men whove suffered illness or nerve damage. But as the amendments sponsor, Iowa Republican Steve King, put it, Sex is never medically necessary. If it was, priests wouldnt live into their 90s.

Source: Virginian - Pilot