Posted on 05/25/2005 5:39:39 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952
Angry state officials demand taxpayer-funded access to offenders' erectile-dysfunction medication be halted.
By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Nearly 200 registered sex offenders in Texas have received Viagra and other sex-enhancing drugs in the taxpayer-funded Medicaid program, angry state leaders disclosed Tuesday.
Demanding a full investigation, they ordered the practice be stopped immedia- tely.
"Giving Viagra to a convicted sex offender is akin to handing a can of gasoline to an arsonist and lighting the match," Attorney General Greg Abbott said. "This unconscionable practice must stop."
In rapid-fire developments that followed the disclosure, which came after Abbott investigated federal reports Monday of similar Medicaid prescription miscues in other states:
•State Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins ordered that sex offenders be blocked from receiving any sex-enhancing drugs through Medicaid, to be effective as soon as a new policy can be approved.
•Abbott called on criminal justice officials to prohibit convicted sex offenders from obtaining erectile-dysfunction drugs through taxpayer-funded medical programs as a condition of their probation or parole.
•Senate and House leaders amended legislation to put that ban in state law.
Tuesday's actions came after federal officials confirmed Monday that confusion over a federal policy directive had resulted in Medicaid programs in several states furnishing Viagra for sex offenders. Federal officials immediately began notifying states that they were not required to offer those drugs to anyone who was a registered sex offender. And U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation Tuesday that would eliminate all federal payments, including Medicaid, for the drugs.
Convicted sex offenders were able to get Viagra because it falls under a drug category approved for Medicaid with a doctor's prescription. Texas health officials said Medicaid rules allow for up to six doses per month.
Abbott spokeswoman Angela Hale said nearly 200 sex offenders in Texas have been receiving Medicaid-paid Viagra and similar drugs since about 1999. More specific figures were unavailable Tuesday.
More than 34,200 sex offenders are registered in the state, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Abbott said his day-old investigation is expanding to determine whether any of the sex offenders who received erectile-dysfunction drugs through Medicaid had committed new sex crimes while they were on the medication.
Authorities also want to determine why the sex offenders were prescribed erectile-dysfunction drugs. Some studies have shown such drugs are effective against some side effects of prostate surgery.
But Abbott was clear: "The sole purpose of sexual-enhancement drugs is sexual enhancement. . . .They should not be prescribed for sex offenders," he said.
Aides to Gov. Rick Perry said he was shocked at the news and ordered state agencies to stop the practice.
Officials at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said they were trying to determine which registered sex offenders on parole may have received the drugs through Medicaid, and were researching a change in parole regulations to prohibit the practice.
The problem, parole and probation officials said, is that once convicts are freed on supervised release, many receive Medicaid and other welfare assistance. And those programs are not usually within the supervisory purview of parole or probation officers since they involve confidential medical matters.
House members, without debate, on Tuesday approved an amendment to Senate Bill 1188 barring the state from spending money for sex offenders to obtain erectile-dysfunction medications. A similar move was afoot in the Senate, where Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, planned to add the prohibition to House Bill 867, tightening the registration and supervision of sex offenders.
Shapiro, an author of Texas' sex offenders laws, said she was livid at the news.
"Who was in charge? What were they thinking? I am appalled," she said. "The best thing for Texans, though, is that we're in legislative session right now and can fix this right now. . . . This needs to be stopped, and it needs to be stopped immediately."
Texas taxpayers getting shafted ping.
These are the same government agencies Hillary Clinton wanted to put in charge of all of our medical care ~ the insurance companies being "evil" donchaknow!
Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott is on the local radio now talking about this.
There are instances of everything from rape, to exposing themselves.
TX legislature quickly passed a law yesterday to prevent this.
Investigations in process now, but don't know how many $$$s were spent the past five years.
Statewide fraud, but mostly in the large cities.
Can you say......Warden Lorena Bobbitt?
Tax dollars at work?
"Tax dollars at work?"
Yes.
Is the state also getting them steady employment at daycare centers?
It would probably cost more to figure out who is a sex offender and deny them viagra than it does to just let them get the viagra. The point is that NOBODY should be getting taxpayer financed viagra.
I agree with that statement. I think there are far too many other taxpayer dollars going to wasteful programs.
this would be a good way to end the payments for viagra for all helath programs. If a women can't get birth control pills for free why should we be paying for a man to "get it up?" The begiining of controlling costs is to elimanate the little things till only the necessary expenses are paid for by insurance. Seniors should be paying for their annual check ups too.
How sad that nothing surprises me anymore about our government. This is so disgusting.
There are SO MANY abuses of and fraudulent claims on the Medicare program enabled by the program's leftist bureaucracy . Medicare is a taxation essentially devised as an insidious prelude to socialized medicine. American taxpayer workers, through the unconstitutional "federal withholding tax" scheme, are literally being *raped* and disenfranchised of the fruits of their labours.
Also, I am rather sick of hearing "liberals" talking about "mainstream." Leftist-liberal political ideologues do not represent American's mainstream sentiments. "Mainstream" or "centralist" among leftists STILL directly points to neoMarxism.
Also, "liberal" activism (e.g., NEA) promotes a curricula which encourages sexual experimentation, diverse sexual practices and promiscuity among public school children. (Ref: Massachusetts notorious "FistGate") Why, oh, WHY, do "liberals" worship the ABORTION solution? - Worship third term butchery/infanticide, and deny parental prerogatives? This "liberal" promotion of promiscuity is sanctified because there is ALWAYS the abortion option?
WHY in HELL is abortion a primary judicial issue?
What in Hell is "humanistic" about third term abortion?
I do not oppose first term abortion in justified social and medical cases. I do oppose the "liberal" worship of abortion, a worship which exalts abortion rights above refeverence for life is beyond all reasonable and humanistic understanding! It defines an evil force.
(I just have to rant!)
What the heck do sex offenders need Viagra for?
AMEN!
Why should Medicaid or Medicare for that matter pay for "lifestyle" drugs like Viagra when most private insurance plans do not?
Good question, but that is what hillary care was all about when she tried to cram that down our throats.
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