Opinion Column Addresses Debate Over Coverage for 'Lifestyle Drugs'

Main Category: Erectile Dysfunction / Premature Ejaculation
Article Date: 19 Jul 2005 - 14:00 PST

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It should not "have been a surprise" to drug companies when the House voted to ban Medicare and Medicaid payments for erectile dysfunction medications because the message of ED advertisements "is less about disease and more about delight,"... Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman writes. A "conversation about rationing" is at the core of this debate, Goodman writes, noting that although people focus on "cost containment for sex, we haven't even begun to think about what we'll do with the truly expensive drugs coming down the pike," such as cancer treatments that can cost as much as $100,000. Goodman writes, "It's possible and sensible to distinguish between the dysfunction caused by disease and the superfunction that urges 70-year-olds to behave like 40-year-olds." She adds, "We can fund one and not the other" (Goodman, Boston Globe, 7/17).

"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation . © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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