 |
Year
2007 |
|
Archives
|
|
|
Should Medicaid be covering drugs like Viagra?
19 August 2004
When you think of how your tax dollars are spent, schools, roads and job development may come to mind. But the amount of money spent by New York taxpayers to help people with their sex lives is skyrocketing.
Some men call Viagra a miracle drug. No one doubted its effectiveness. But for more men every year, you paid for the cure.
It's the little blue pill credited with saving sex lives worldwide. The erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, at one time only whispered about in private, is now publicly discussed in mainstream culture.
Dana Giglac owns Saratoga Pharmacy and says the number of people showing up with prescriptions for Viagra is becoming more and more frequent. "At one point it was maybe every other day. Now it's every hour... of every day."
But more often, taxpayers are footing the bill. Medicaid covers Viagra and other similar drugs.
I-Team 10 has obtained numbers that show the amount the state spent on Viagra has more than doubled in just two years.
In 2001 the state re-imbursed pharmacies $6.8 million for Medicaid Viagra prescriptions. In 2002 it reached $11.5 million.
Last year it had climbed to more than $15 million.
Those figures don't even include the cost of similar drugs Cialis and Levitra, which were just recently added to the approved drug list. "I would call this more life enhancing than life sustaining but then again there are a lot of pharmaceuticals in our world today that are in that category. Therein lies the dilemma," said State Senator Joe Robach.
Robach favors a state approved preferred drug list aimed at driving down the price of all pharmaceuticals. But as the cost to taxpayers continues to climb and states and counties wrestle with crippling budget deficits, the question being asked more often these days is, should sex be a government entitlement. "Erectile Dysfunction is a problem men have and it's a disease and something's wrong and there's a way to fix it and these drugs fix that problem,” said Giglac.
"It certainly seems there's a role here to assist patients who are having difficulty with those types of problems to the extent that we're able to assist patients during times of budget crisis. I really think a full analysis needs to be done on the whole pharmaceutical issue. Because perhaps there's a way to continue to cover this medication without putting the rest of the budget in jeopardy," said Nancy Adams, Executive Director of the Monroe County Medical Society.
But a new study released this month is showing some trends about Viagra users and whether the drug is being properly used.
According to the report by a pharmacy benefit management firm, the number of younger men, ages 18 to 55 using viagra have increased by more than 300-percent.
Researchers noted that many prescriptions showed no medical need for the drug, and are instead being used as an "enhancement or recreational agent.
"Our system says we are going to cover whatever is prescribed by the medical professionals," said Robach.
Robach says New York State spent $44 billion on Medicaid related programs last year.
Counties complain they are the ones ultimately forced to pay for the mandated coverage. "It doesn't matter if you're talking about Viagra or any other type of service that is being required of counties. We should have more control over what we're spending our dollars on," said Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks.
Driving a lot of the growing demand is more awareness of a cure. Television advertising for the drugs is now prevalent at all hours of the day making people less self-conscious about getting help. "With the amount of direct consumer advertising being done, and my gosh, I can't turn on my computer without getting at least 10 messages about some of these drugs, you can see easily how there's a demand for it," said Adams.
Medicaid in New York does restrict the number of pills for many lifestyle drugs on its approved list. For Viagra it is six per monthly prescription. But at the same time, New York spends more per capita than any other state to provide health care services to the poor, the elderly and the disabled. source :-http://www.10nbc.com | 
