Senators Vote to Allow Viagra for Sex Offenders

New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand both voted to kill an amendment that would prevent sex offenders from receiving Viagra. Congressman Michael McMahon of NY-13 is not a member of the Senate and therefore did not vote.

Senators Schumer and Gillibrand also refused to hold any town hall meetings last summer regarding Obama's healthcare reform bill, which recently passed.

Amendment 3556 to the Health Care Reconciliation Act of 2010 failed 57-42.

No Republicans voted yea and only two democrats voted with the GOP, they are Senators Bayh (D-IN) and Nelson (D-NE).

A "YEA" vote was to kill the amendment and to allow child molesters and rapists to access Viagra under the new health care exchanges and a "NAY" vote was to prohibit Viagra for sex offenders.

Amendment 3556 was introduced by Republican Senator Tom Coburn, a medical doctor from Oklahoma. The amendment titled No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs to Sex Offenders (Amendment 3556) reads in part:

This amendment would enact recommendations from the Government Accountability Office to stop fraudulent payments for prescription drugs prescribed by dead providers or, to dead patients. This amendment also prohibits coverage of Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders.

New York, acting on a tip, was the first to uncover that Medicaid had paid for Viagra prescriptions for sex offenders. An AP report in 2005 revealed approximately 800 convicted sex offenders in 14 states got Medicaid-funded prescriptions for Viagra and other impotence drugs.

The majority of the cases were in New York, Florida and Texas. The attorney general of Texas, Gregg Abbott revealed that two registered sex offenders in Texas committed additional sex crimes after their first prescription was filled.

The 14 states (with corresponding cases) that provided registered sex offenders with subsidized impotence drugs are:

1. Florida, 218

2. New York, 198

3. Texas, 191

4. New Jersey, 55

5. Virginia, 52

6. Missouri, 26

7. Kansas, 14

8. Ohio, 13

9. Michigan, seven

10. Maine, five

11. Georgia, three

12. Montana, three

13. Alabama, two

14. North Dakota, one.

Matt Salo, a staff member of the National Governors Association, referred to a 1998 letter by the Clinton administration claiming it is the law to provide Viagra.

The Coburn amendment would have allowed the new health bill that Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi muscled into law from preventing funding for Viagra and other ED medications to convicted child molesters, rapists, and sex offenders.

How did your Senator vote? Click here for roll call vote.

It is notable that no Republicans voted to table the amendment, look for this to be a part of the midterm election debate.

It is curious that the two Democratic Senators from New York would vote to table such prohibitions. Are partisan politics preventing the Democrats from disallowing fraud and ED drugs for sex offenders?

Sources:

http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=RightNow.Home&ContentRecord_id=8c4d4f45-802a-23ad-4748-3ac0f35d4335

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-28-viagra-medicare_x.htm