Rep. (Dr.) Tom Coburn (R-OK) has introduced an amendment he feels most Democrats will support also:
No Erectile Dysfunction Drugs To Sex Offenders – 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, and prohibits coverage of abortion drugs. (Note: the creation of exchanges could allow sex offenders to receive taxpayer-funded Viagra and other ED drugs unless Congress expressly prohibits this action
I guess I want to know why sex offenders are in a place where they would need ED products. What about when they have served their time. In addition to being on the sex offender list would they be banned from ED materials? (not that I care) Where do abortion drugs fit into this profile? Granted I am posting an excerpt, but I don’t know how many sex offenders are standing in line for abortion drugs. I think I would need to see a list of what these abortion drugs are before I pull down the red flags that have shot up.
Meanwhile, I am all in favor of not giving sex offenders Viagra with taxpayer money. Of course, this begs the question: Can they buy it with their own money? I suppose it depends on how badly they want it.
Why should anyone get tax payer funded Viagra?
…or abortion drugs?
Abortion drug to be used after a Viagra crazed attack. Both paid for by us.
I believe punchak is on to something! 😉
All kidding aside, what are abortion drugs? Is that code for birth control?
I have never heard of abortion drugs. RU-486 is covered by the Hyde Amendment.
I’ve never heard of “abortion drugs” either, except in the context of drugs administered during an abortion. The “day after” pill isn’t an abortion drug.
Birth control does not equal erection enhancement except that they are both means of prevention.
I will gladly pay for prevention, including preventing sex offenders from sharpening their weapon of choice.
I meant that giving birth control and denying the right to enhancement are both forms of prevention.
It’s still early.
Right to enhancement….bwaahahahahahaha
You truly are a poet, Pinko.
This whole thing is nutty. The tax payers shouldn’t be paying for ANYONE to get Viagra.
Of course, no way should sex offenders be allowed to get viagra at all – even if they pay for it themselves.
Does insurance even pay anything towards Viagra? I guess ED qualifies as an illness so insurance probably does pay for it. I suppose i just answered my own question.
Thanks MH : )
It IS stupid having enhancers paid for by taxes.
If they are going to do that, I want my lipo paid for. And while we are at it, let’s add cosmetic breast implants to the list.
Tom Coburn is in the Senate so he should be Sen. (Dr.) Tom Coburn, not Rep.
This is one of a large number of amendments to the sidecar bill that Republicans are planning to use to force unpopular votes. They can’t stop the bill, but they can make Democrats in the Senate squirm and defend some very unpopular thinks (like the Cornhusker Kickback)
THANK YOU! My thoughts exactly
The abortion pill RU-486 is included as being prohibited from access by sex offenders simply because they don’t want sex offenders to start up again, impregnante someone and then try to cover their tracks with the pill (and no, it’s NOT the morning after pill).
However, what if you are a sex offender and get pregnant and want the pill to end it? Do they check sex offender stats when you go to the MD?
As for Viagra, it is a male enhancer, but it is also a circulatory drug. The erection thingy is merely a side-effect. Now what if you’re a sex offender, you need Viagra to help you with your circulatory issues, but you’re denied it because you’re a convicted sex offender?
In my understanding of sex offenders, it isn’t so much about the sex that turns them on and makes them repeat their actions, but rather the need to control their object of desire…to have control over someone. It’s why chemical castration methods don’t work. It isn’t the sex that is driving them, but rather the intense desire to posess/have control over another. It’s a power thing….
@Not Me, Bubba
Okay, but there are other drugs that can be used for circulatory problems. They obviously were used long before Viagra came out.
I realize sex offenses are about power, not sex. However, like I said before, why enhance their weapon of choice?
“they don’t want sex offenders to start up again, impregnante someone and then try to cover their tracks with the pill ” I don’t know what you mean by this, Bubba. Can you clarify?
@pinko – not all sex offenders use their – uh – thingy. Some convvicted offenders were flashers, gropers or voyeurs. They don’t all use their penis.
And what I meant by this: they don’t want sex offenders to start up again, impregnante someone and then try to cover their tracks with the pill ” I meant that if a sex offender starts say….having intercourse with a 13 y/old girl, she gets pregnant, the pregnancy is evidence of his illegal acts….if he could get RU-486 and give it to her…he could cover his tracks, end the pregnancy and continue on with his abuse in secret.
What is curious to me however is that…why would a man try and get RU-486? I am unaware of any medical benefits it holds for men. It would look rather strange for a man to be asking for it.
“why would a man try and get RU-486”
Think Josef Fritzl (sic) …
Bizarro world again. I don’t think there was ever a viagra give away in the first place.
As for the abortion drugs. That has to be code for something else. There aren’t abortion drugs.
Some of these people just need to get over their obssession with sex, abortion.
@Rick Bentley
is there a medical reason to prescribe/dispense RU-486 to a male?
This is turning into another one of those ‘when did you stop beating your wife’ situations.
Viagra is just something people get on their own.
Men have no use for RU-486. awrrggghhhhhhh
Sure they do, if they are raping some young girl and want to give the drug to her.
I guess my take on it is the following: there must be some other circulatory drug that would work instead of Viagra. I can’t believe it’s the only drug out there that would cure some circulatory problem, that a sex offender happened to have.
And, this is my own opinion only – but if not, too bad! There are consequences to being a sex offender, and if this is one of those consequences, so be it.
I still think there must be alternatives to Viagra for those kind of cases. Maybe they may not work as well, but again, if so, too bad.
You can tell those kind of people don’t get a whole lot of sympathy from me. I’m not with the crowd that says “they’ve done the time, now let’s forgive them and treat them normally”.
That indeed makes sense to me – about why a man would ask for RU-486. This way, there’s no baby to take DNA evidence off of – to prove the rapist fathered the baby, or even had sex with that woman. Now, I’m sure other DNA evidence does get left behind – but I’m just trying to say what the rapist might be thinking in wanting to get ahold of RU-486 even though he’s a man.
You just can’t go get an rx for ru-486. It is very carefully administered in a doctor’s office.
I am rethinking this one. Viagra is a perfectly legal drug used to treat erectile dysfunction. I have no problem with it being part of an rx plan.
Sex offenders should be in jail. People in jail don’t need Viagra. People in jail would be the only ones I wouldn’t let have it.
Yes, but unfortunately lots of sex offenders (registered sex offenders) are not in the jail but live all over the place (just pull up the VA sex offender registry and you’ll see what I mean).
On the other hand, ED is an illness, so I see no problem with it being part of a prescription plan.
But sex offenders both in and out jail shouldn’t be able to get ahold of it.
I guess as to RU-486 – if it can only be administered in a doctor’s office, than no men should be able to buy it, unless they get ahold of it illegally somehow.
I think I just capitulated that I saw nothing wrong with viagra being part of any rx plan. To me it would be up to the company. Shop around like people do now and buy plans based on what you need, if you have that luxury. Medicare people do.
And I agree, ED is an medical condition. As for sex offenders, how do youo have to show your sex offender card to pick up an RX? This goes back to when did you stop beating your wife or proving a negative. I assume no one is a sex offender. How exactly do we pick out sex offenders at the drug store buying viagra? Talk about an invasion of privacy.
GR if you wanted or needed viagra, should you have to prove you aren’t a sex offender? 🙄
I guess if the perp flashes the pharmacist, we’d know he’s a sex offender.
“Yes sir that’ll be a Playboy, a Penthouse, a Hustler Barely legal, K-Y jelly, some baby oil, two rolls of paper towels, some viagra, a washcloth, and some No-Doze – thank you sir.”
“Thank YOU!”
(paraphrasing an old Saturday Night Live Sketch with Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz).
Rick and Pinko, you all teaming up as a comedy team or something?
Yes, I think that’s right actually. It would be easy to check them automatically against some list of registered sex offenders, at the same time as checking their prescription coverage. The technology is definitely there to do it. I don’t consider that any invasion of privacy.
That is more or less a reversal of the American way. You have to prove you aren’t guilty? I don’t like that and it isn’t even MY problem. (I can’t see myself needing Viagra)
It looks like we are back to when did you stop beating your wife. Proving the negative.
Just to go the VA sex offenders website – any member of the public can put his/her address in there – and get a nice list of all sex offenders within some radius – their complete names and addresses, and what they were convicted for, etc.
So, if there’s some invasion of privacy, it’s already there.
I am not worried about invading their privacy. I am worried about invading the privacy of those who are not sex offenders. If you are Mr. Howler have to prove you aren’t sex offenders, where do you start? You are aware that sometimes sex offenders don’t register when they move. I don’t know here…..
I don’t think anyone should have to prove they aren’t a sex offender to use viagra.
Am I unAmerica for wanting men to not have to prove they aren’t sex offenders?
As long as Mr. Howler’s name, address, and mug shot doesn’t come up as a match on the sex offender registry, I don’t see he should have any problem. My point is, the check against the registry would be automatic. The technology is there. In fact, I could easily myself write a program to compare a potential prescription – the name and address to the list of folks on the sex offender registry.
I get where sex offenders may move and not notify – well in that case they’ll slip through the cracks.
I don’t see where someone can be misidentified as a sex offender this way. They would have to have the same name and address as a sex offender!
I’m not saying to just compare the names, but the name and address. Again, I recognize some sex offenders may slip through the cracks who have moved and didn’t notify the authorities they moved.
I don’t see any false positives in this system. I do see some failed positives (that is people who should have matched and ID’d as sex offenders but didn’t). False positives would be bad – people who aren’t sex offenders ID’s as one. I just don’t see that happening.
Maybe I ought to go write that software and sell it and make some money…
I may have worded that badly – I meant to say as long as a name, address, and mug shot matching Mr. Howler doesn’t come up in the sex offender registry…..
It not only includes the names and addresses, but mug shots.
Just go look for yourself at the VA sex offender registry (and people may be fascinated to see how many sex offenders live near them – or maybe they may not want to know – under the theory “ignorance is bliss” – so in that case be forwarned!!): http://sex-offender.vsp.virginia.gov/sor/