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New Medicare benefit: Does it cure the ill or just raise the dead?
2/3/2005
Who says you can’t have everything? Apparently not Uncle Sam, who as our headline so delicately put it Wednesday, is now getting involved in the bedroom.
Beginning a year from now, sexual performance drugs like Viagra
will be covered in Medicare’s new prescription drug program.
The reason? The law says if it’s an FDA-approved
drug and is medically necessary, it has to be covered. The question
in my mind is, when is Viagra “medically necessary?”
Hey, I’m glad that older couples are now able to enjoy a
sex life since the inception of the new drug. Sales of such drugs
as Viagra and Cialis
have skyrocketed. We can’t even turn on the television without
seeing advertisements from “happy” couples reporting
on the drugs’ success.
Great. Fine. Get it on.
Yet, I have to question why this particular prescription drug deserves coverage under Medicare. Since when is sex “medically necessary?”
You know, this drug has created some new problems. It was originally developed
to help men with erectile
dysfunction — impotence.
However, I would wager, based on some news stories we’ve had in our paper over the last few months, that many men who don’t really suffer from impotence are taking it. Heck, even the TV advertisements hint at it.
Many men are taking it to “improve” their sexual performance, not to get it started again. In other words, again trying to be delicate, these guys aren’t suffering from impotence — they’re suffering from impatience!
Another possible side effect of this new drug is women way past the age of childbearing years are suddenly finding themselves pregnant. How many of these poor women who thought they didn’t have to worry about birth control after age 50 have had their lives changed so dramatically because now their husbands are suddenly hungry for romance? Is Medicare going to start paying for birth control pills now for older women?
I don’t begrudge folks their romance. I think the drug is great if it’s used properly. I also think the U.S. government has no business paying Medicare benefits for it. The new prescription coverage is expected to cost more than $500 billion over the next 10 years.
Since the drug benefits men, and Congress still is made up of mostly men, I don’t have a whole lot of confidence this new entitlement will change.
Here’s a joke I think pretty much sums up how women feel about this particular benefit.
A man at a nursing home took Viagra and went to the lunch room, where the residents were playing bingo. To get their attention he yelled out, “SUPER SEX!, Super Sex!” The ladies yelled back: “I want the SOUP!” “Soup, Please.” “Oh, I’d love some soup!”
Allen is managing editor of the Enid News & Eagle. She can be reached at 548-8163 or by e-mail at editor@enidnews.com. source:-http://www.enidnews.com |
