Budget
restores erectile drug aid
July 12, 2006
Gov. Corzine was convinced
Medicaid coverage would help overall health.
New Jersey has slashed funding for higher education,
curtailed money for municipalities, and raised
taxes in a political fight that led to a government
shutdown. But men using impotence drugs such
as Viagra are getting a break.
After ending coverage two months ago to save
an estimated $1.5 million, the Corzine administration
decided Friday to reinstate Medicaid prescriptions
for low-income recipients who use popular erectile-dysfunction
drugs such as Cialis, Levitra
and Viagra.
Some were surprised that Gov. Corzine would
restore the coverage after refusing to budge
on raising the sales tax and pledging to curtail
spending to resolve a $4.3 billion budget crunch.
"You want to make a joke out of it, but
it's a million and a half dollars," said
Steven Lonegan, state director of the New Jersey
chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a group
that advocates fiscal and regulatory restraint
in government.
State Sen. Joseph Vitale (D., Middlesex), who
discovered that the program quietly had been
stopped in May, convinced Corzine that it was
only fair to give impoverished people with underlying
health problems, such as diabetes, the same
coverage provided to the elderly and disabled.
"The doctor just doesn't provide a pill,"
said Vitale, who has consulted physicians. "There
are a number of benefits to having a healthy
sex life. It's an appropriate health-care response."
Men who seek help for erectile
dysfunction might find that the causes are
illnesses they otherwise might not have discovered,
said Vitale, chairman of the Senate Health,
Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee.
The state pays for only four or five pills per
month.
"It's not a recreational medication,"
he said.
This isn't the first time erectile-dysfunction
drugs have made headlines in New Jersey.
State officials were embarrassed last year
when it was discovered that convicted sex offenders
received impotence drugs through Medicaid and
other state-run programs to the tune of $12,000
to $15,000.
The federal government last year ordered states
to stop paying for erectile-dysfunction drugs
after New York and New Jersey admitted providing
the medication to sex offenders.
New Jersey officials said the coverage for
Medicaid recipients would not resume until sex
offenders in the program were weeded out from
receiving benefits.
Lonegan said he could not fathom why the Corzine
administration, which is raising taxes and denying
funding for other programs, would bring back
a program like this.
"That's a ton of money," he said.
"... I don't know what these people are
thinking."
Anthony Coley, a spokesman for Corzine, said
Vitale had made a strong case.
"It really is indicative of a larger health-care
problem," Coley said. "We can have
a positive impact on public health over the
long haul."
Asked whether Corzine was worried that he could
be the focus of jokes and derision for spending
money on something that some might consider
frivolous, Coley said, "No."
Paul R. Shelly, director of communications
for the New Jersey Association of State Colleges
and Universities, said there was no question
that higher education took a hit in the governor's
$30.9 billion budget.
Shelly said he did not want to speculate about
the spending on impotence drugs, but added that
"a budget reflects what you value."
"I don't think there's a need for picking
apart spending in other areas," he said.
Source: http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/15017026.htm?source=
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