Medicaid
to cover Viagra purchases again, N.J. decides
July 11, 2006
The state once again will pick
up the tab for men on Medicaid who need prescriptions
for drugs treating erectile dysfunction.
In the midst of its budget negotiations Friday,
the Corzine administration reversed a decision
it made in May, when it began denying Medicaid
recipients' coverage for Viagra,
Levitra, Cialis and similar impotence prescription
medications. Officials said it was a cost-cutting
move that could save the state $1.5 million.
Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), chairman
of the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior
Citizens Committee, said he urged Gov. Jon Corzine
to change his position "as a matter of
fairness."
The state has continued to provide coverage
for the drug for state employees, as well as
the elderly and disabled people enrolled in
the Pharmaceutical Assistance to the Aged and
Disabled and Senior Gold programs, Vitale noted.
"If you are low-income or working poor,
you are somehow treated differently," he
said.
Vitale said covering erectile
dysfunction drugs also makes medical sense.
"When men see a physician because of this
condition, they discover the underlying reason
they have this problem," Vitale said.
Erectile dysfunction, affecting between 35
percent to 50 percent of men, is most often
caused by diseases such as diabetes, kidney
disease, chronic alcoholism, multiple sclerosis,
atherosclerosis, vascular disease, and neurologic
disease, according to the National Kidney and
Urologic Diseases Clearinghouse Web site.
Anthony Coley, a Corzine spokesman, said Vitale
made "a very persuasive argument that erectile
dysfunction is often among the first symptoms
of a larger health problem, and by getting folks
to the doctor early, we can have a positive
impact on public health."
Coverage will resume as soon as the state has
reimplemented a system to screen out convicted
sex offenders on Medicaid from receiving the
impotence drugs, said state Human Services spokeswoman
Suzanne Esterman.
Although the Medicaid program is jointly funded
by the state and federal government, federal
officials stopped covering impotence medications
last year after New York and New Jersey officials
learned they unknowingly had allowed sex offenders
enrolled in government-subsidized insurance
programs to obtain the popular medications.
Last year, about 55 sex offenders in New Jersey,
classified under Megan's Law as the most likely
to commit another sex crime, legally obtained
the medications at a cost of $12,200 to taxpayers,
causing a public outcry. The state set up a
system to deny their requests for impotence
drugs. The state is now reviving that system.
"We don't have a timeline yet, but we
are working on it," Esterman said.
Medicaid provides health insurance for one
in eight state residents.
Source : http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1152599160277870.xml&coll=1 |
