Monday, May 23, 2005

I Love New York

There are some reasons why New York may not be a wonderful place to relocate to (not that anyone does.) Here's one of them:

By MICHAEL VERTANEN

Albany, N.Y. (AP) - Scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders in New York have been getting Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years, the state's comptroller said Sunday.

Audits by Comptroller Alan Hevesi's office showed that between January 2000 and March 2005, 198 sex offenders in New York receieved Medicaid-reimbursed Viagra after their convictions. Those included crimes against children as young as 2 years old, he said.

Hevesi asked Michael Leavitt, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in a letter Sunday to "take immediate action to ensure that sex offenders do not receive erectile dysfunction medication paid for by taxpayers."

A call to Leavitt's office was not immediately returned Sunday.

According to Hevesi, the problem is an unintended consequence of a 1998 directive from federal officials telling states that Medicaid prescription programs must include Viagra. His office discovered that the state was helping sex offenders pay for Viagra by checking Medicaid pharmacy expenditures against the state's sex offender registry.

New York's two senators said Sunday the problem should be corrected.

Well, yes, I should think so.

This demonstrates the utter chaos of bureaucracy in action. The Democrat and Chronicle has for some time been running editorials on how dysfunctional Medicaid is and how we the taxpayers are being hurt by it. Here's the proof.

And what possible aim is being served by giving ed medication to sex offenders? If they're in prison, they probably are better off without it, and if they're free (and single), it is a disaster in the making.

The kicker is, the same thing may be happening in your state, because this is a federal policy.

Sometimes you get government, and sometimes government gets you.

Peace.

 

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just when you think you've heard everything...