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Prescription for trouble
A Times Editorial
Published May 25, 2005
After news broke this week that New York sex offenders were getting Viagra on Medicaid's tab, it didn't take long for Florida officials to discover that Medicaid has spent $93,000 in the past four years on Viagra for 218 of the state's convicted sex offenders. In Washington, meanwhile, the Bush administration wasted no time in telling states they did not have to provide sex offenders with Medicaid-funded erectile dysfunction drugs.
So what about convicted sex offenders who can afford to buy their own Viagra? Should they be denied? That's a no-brainer. Of course they should.
Medicaid covered the cost of Viagra for more than 400 high-risk sex offenders in New York and Florida, according to state audits. If these two states are any indication, thousands of sex offenders throughout the country have been popping Viagra pills on the taxpayer's dime. Auditors now are reviewing whether Medicaid has reimbursed sex offenders for other sexual dysfunction drugs.
States should not overreact and bar Medicaid from covering anyone's Viagra, which, along with similar prescription drugs, is used to treat impotence in men who have had prostate cancer surgery. Let's remain calm and just try to keep the little blue pill out of the reach of convicted sex offenders.
[Last modified May 25, 2005, 00:39:15]
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Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
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