Posted By: djhouston @ 10/08/2008 1:05:38 PM
Comment: I have just now read of this story about McCain and Viagra, and it came as a shock and surprise to me.
My insurance company has no limit on coverage of contraceptives, but only allows 8 Viagra tablets of 100mg per month. Imagine an insurance company telling you (and your doctor) that you could only have sex twice a week (some kind of national average?). Actually, my doctor prescribed Viagra for me in low doses before and after radical surgery for prostate cancer, with the thought that it would help with recovery of the nerves down there that were injured in the surgery.
So, Viagra is not only a "recreational" drug, but, for me and many other prostate cancer surgery patients, rehabilitative therapy. I complained of discrimination (Viagra vs. contraceptives) to the insurance company and my company's human resource dept., but they said they were just following "industry standards" for amount covered. I also let this drug company's representative that I wanted to complain about Viagra's TV campaign, Viva Viagra, because I think this contributed to the drug's recreational image which may have made it look bad to the insurance companies (they cover daily doses of lots more expensive drugs when they think that people are really sick), But I see why Pfizer did it. If insurance companies were going to discriminate against men regarding this drug, then they would hope to get guys to pay out of pocket to get it. And I understand why businesses'HR departments would pay for contraceptives and not Viagra: birth control pills are cheaper than having to both pay and replace a productive employee out on maternity leave, and who cares what men do or can't do after business hours.

