sex offenders and viagra

[newgranny]

This is totally unreal how can they allow this to happen these people should be castrated but now they get viagra!!!!!!!!

ALBANY, N.Y. - The Bush administration is scrambling to find a way to close a loophole that allows convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders to receive Viagra at taxpayer expense.
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The state comptroller's office called attention to the situation on Sunday, saying audits from 2000 through March found that 198 sex offenders in New York received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Their crimes included offenses against children as young as 2, Comptroller Alan Hevesi said.

The auditors did not review the situation in other states, but Hevesi spokesman David Neustadt said Medicaid policies on Viagra are the same across the country.

"The bottom line is, giving convicted sex offenders government-funded Viagra is like giving convicted murderers an assault rifle when they get out of jail," said Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y. He said he would sponsor a bill to close the loophole.

The U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services said it had been unaware of the loophole, which spokeswoman Mary Kahn called an "unintended consequence" of Medicaid law.

"We are going to make every effort to see what the states or federal government can take to address this problem without harming people who have a legitimate need for this drug, such as men who had prostate cancer and diabetes," she said. "We want to see what remedies there are to address this problem."

Children's advocates said they were outraged by the comptroller's report.

"The federal government is inadvertently facilitating the sexual assault of children," said Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, named for a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender.

Hevesi's office discovered that the state was helping sex offenders pay for Viagra by checking Medicaid pharmacy expenditures against the state's sex offender registry. In a letter Sunday to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, Hevesi requested immediate action.

The study covered only Viagra. State auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders in the state, Neustadt said.

New York Gov. George Pataki called on Washington to reverse the Clinton-era's "irrational and misguided policy." The Republican also directed the New York Parole Division to prohibit convicted sexual offenders on parole from using erectile-dysfunction drugs. He recommended county probation departments do the same.

In New Jersey, acting Gov. Richard J. Codey sent a letter to Leavitt on Monday urging him to ensure that Medicaid does not pay for erectile-dysfunction medication for sex offenders.

Codey also asked his state treasurer to review all state financed prescription drug programs to ensure that taxpayers are not paying for such medicines for sex offenders. Officials said Monday afternoon they did not know how many Medicaid recipients that might include.

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[Njean31]

i know at the jail i worked at.....once they became an inmate unfortunatley any medical benefits they had before they entered jail were null and void including medicaid. the county taxpayers paid for ALL the medical and dental bills they incured. the jail would have NEVER paid for viagra though. one time a sexually transgendered person came in and was on some high dollar hormone treatments (to keep thier boobs full and surpress testosterone) and they wanted........heck just expected that the jail would keep them on it..................NOT. totally rediculous.

[freebielover]

Why should they be on any assistance even out of jail? Why should we pay for them to get medications, let them suffer in my opinion.

[ang in NC]

Why this drug? Makes no sense to me. Sick!

[Bud_Girl76]

Why should they be on any assistance even out of jail? Why should we pay for them to get medications, let them suffer in my opinion.

I agree..

[YNKYH8R]

Sexoffenders and Viagra just like Military Intelligence
(Two words combined that can't make sense.)

[Willow]

http://www.turnto10.com/news/4523134...105242005&ts=H

Agency: States Don't Have To Pay For Sex Offenders' Viagra

UPDATED: 9:42 am EDT May 24, 2005

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A federal agency began notifying states Monday that they do not have to pay for Viagra for convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services acted one day after the New York comptroller's office said audits from 2000 through March found that 198 sex offenders in the state received Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Their crimes included offenses against children as young as 2, Comptroller Alan Hevesi said.

New York auditors didn't review situations in other states, but Hevesi's spokesman, David Neustadt, said policies on Viagra under the health care program for the poor and elderly are apparently the same across the country.


Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said later Monday that Medicaid has paid $93,000 to provide Viagra to 218 sex offenders in that state over the last four years.

The New York comptroller's report sent the Bush administration scrambling to find a way to close the loophole. Gary Karr, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that "states already have the power to determine if a drug is not medically appropriate for a certain patient or certain class of patients."

"The Medicaid program should not be paying for erectile dysfunction drugs for sex offenders," he said. But he said confusion over a 1998 federal directive apparently resulted in Medicaid-paid Viagra for sex offenders.

In a letter Sunday to HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt, Hevesi requested administrative action or an amendment to the Medicaid law. "It's great that the federal government has responded immediately and given states the power to stop providing Viagra to sex offenders," Hevesi said Monday.

Laura Ahearn, executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, an advocacy group named for a New Jersey girl raped and killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender, praised the government's move as "the most proactive measure they can take to ensure that individual states can legislate what their values are."

Hevesi told WROW Radio in Albany that his office was tipped off by a whistleblower who noticed sex offenders were getting Viagra prescriptions. His office checked Medicaid pharmacy expenditures against the state's sex offender registry.

The New York audit covered only Viagra. State auditors are reviewing whether other prescription drugs for sexual dysfunction are being reimbursed by Medicaid for convicted sex offenders in the state, officials said.

[iluvmybaby]

Our tax dollars at work, how retarded is this? Viagra to SEX offenders

[dv8grl]

Did anyone watch this evenings CBS Network News...

I don't have a link, but they did a report on Viagra and related BLINDNESS! I know Blindness is not anything to laugh at, but I just had to. I am an awful person, but to me its hilarious!

I wonder if the erections are worth going blind for?!?!!??!?

[Kyla Kym]

Did anyone watch this evenings CBS Network News...

I don't have a link, but they did a report on Viagra and related BLINDNESS! I know Blindness is not anything to laugh at, but I just had to. I am an awful person, but to me its hilarious!

I wonder if the erections are worth going blind for?!?!!??!?

OH MY GOSH!!! That is so funny!!! And all that time we thought it was a joke when they said "If you keep doing that you will go blind"!!! LOL

[CatrinaF25]

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