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Sex pests get free Viagra
24/05/2005 13:12 - (SA)
New York - US federal officials struggled on Monday to respond to the revelation that high-risk sex offenders were getting free supplies of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, with taxpayers picking up the tab.
On Sunday, New York State Comptroller Alan Havesi said a routine audit had shown that over the past five years, 198 level-three sex offenders had received free Viagra through the government's Medicaid health service for the poor.
The victims of the offenders involved ranged in age from two to 90 years old, while the offences ran the gamut from sexual touching to first-degree rape.
Havesi wrote a letter to Health Secretary Michael Leavitt, urging "immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by the taxpayers".
Convicted sex offenders in the United States are classified according to their risk of re-offending, with level one representing the lowest risk and level three the highest.
Mary Kahn, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, said Viagra was covered by Medicaid according to a statute requiring coverage of all drugs that are prescribed for medically necessary purposes.
"This particular population ... it's a difficult question," Kahn said of the sex offenders.
"We are looking closely at what alternatives there may be for us to take or for states to take," she said.
The comptroller's report triggered outrage among local New York politicians.
"There is no excuse for allowing level three sex predators, the absolute worst of the worst, to have Viagra," said state assembly speaker Sheldon Silver.
- AFP
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South Africa
