Ban proposed on Medicare coverage for impotence drugs

Some physicians question the logic of restricting federal funding for a major class of life-enhancing medications.

By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. June 13, 2005.

Washington --One of the lawmakers who fought the hardest to add prescription drugs to Medicare is now working on making sure that certain "lifestyle drugs" are not included on that list.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley (R, Iowa) introduced legislation last month that would bar federal payments for any drugs prescribed to treat erectile or sexual dysfunction. The prohibition would extend to Medicaid, which already covers such medications, and any other public health program that uses government dollars.

If the bill is to become law, physicians who prescribe drugs such as Viagra, Cialis and Levitra to their elderly and disabled patients would need to inform them that the highly anticipated Medicare drug benefit would not pay for such medications. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated that if Medicare begins to cover erectile dysfunction drugs as planned in January 2006, Medicare and Medicaid would spend roughly $1.93 billion on the medications over the next 10 years.

"Some certainly may argue that these lifestyle drugs can improve your life," Grassley said in a speech on the Senate floor. "I appreciate that view. However, we live in a world of limited resources, and in that world of limited resources, coverage of these lifestyle drugs under Medicare -- or any other federal program, in my opinion -- is inconsistent with that goal of balance."