aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Viagra & Sex Offenders
Personally, I don’t think Medicare should pay for Viagra. I’ve said before that it looks like a sop to the pharmaceutical industry to me. There are limits to what Medicare can do; one place to start limiting is “lifestyle” drugs.
But so long as we’re paying for them, Lindsay’s talking sense:
Medicaid covers Viagra for anyone for whom it is medically indicated. You don’t have to undergo a criminal record check to get any other kind of medical treatment. Pickpockets can be treated for carpal tunnel, peeping toms for ADD, and embezzelers for dyslexia--and that’s exactly how it should be.
It’s unnerving to see moral busybodies demanding a closer mesh between health care and the law. Medicaid is not an arm of the parole system. Prescriptions shouldn’t be rationed in the name of social engineering. It sounds as if Health and Human Services might even revoke Viagra coverage for sex offenders who have already served their time. This is unconscionable. It’s not up to HHS to heap extrajudicial punishments on people who’ve already paid their debt to society.
Some * believe * a sex offender can never pay his “debt to society.” * That aside, I too am unnerved by the mixing of health care and the law, and agree that “the sex offender issue is a total red herring:”
The unsubstantiated implication is that Viagra is facilitating rapes. That might be true, but then again, so might angina medication, antibiotics, or any other medical treatment for a sex offender who would otherwise be out of commission.
Unfortunately, Kevin is also right:
Don’t you just hate this stuff? Lindsay is plainly right on the merits, but once again conservatives have managed to dredge up a bizarre non-issue designed to make anyone with any sense look like a moral pervert. You either vote to ban Viagra for these people or else you’re aiding and abetting child abuse. And there isn’t a local news station in the country that can resist running with this story.
