Sex offenders won’t get Viagra

By JIM VERTUNO
Associated Press Writer

AUSTIN (AP) — Hours after it was announced Tuesday that nearly 200 registered sex offenders in Texas have obtained Viagra and other sex-enhancing drugs through Medicaid, state officials and lawmakers took action to prevent the practice.

“Giving Viagra to a convicted sex offender is akin to handing a can of gasoline to an arsonist and providing the match to start the fire,” Attorney General Greg Abbott said while announcing the findings of a one-day investigation by his office.

About an hour after Abbott held a news conference to announce his findings, the state House approved a measure to end the practice. Abbott said he hoped to get a similar measure passed in the Senate.

The state Health and Human Services Commission later said it would change its rules regarding Medicaid to deal with the problem as well.

“Convicted sex offenders do not have a right to have a happy sex life at the expense of taxpayers,” said Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie.

Abbott's office moved quickly after similar reports from New York, where state officials revealed Sunday that scores of convicted rapists and other high-risk sex offenders had been getting the erectile-dysfunction drug Viagra paid by Medicaid for the last five years.

Abbott said his office is trying to determine if more Texas sex offenders have been buying Viagra and similar drugs with taxpayer money.

“I'm shocked and disturbed by the findings,” Abbott said.

Meanwhile, a federal agency has begun notifying all 50 states that they don't have to offer Medicaid-funded Viagra to sex offenders.

Texas Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins directed the Office of the Inspector General to ensure that sex offenders would be denied access to erectile-dysfunction drugs.

A database of Medicaid clients will be regularly compared to a registry of sex offenders maintained by the Department of Public Safety. Any matches would result in denial of Viagra and similar drugs, Hawkins said.

Abbott said he was he was unaware of any law that might have banned the sale of the drugs to sex offenders. Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides health care for the poor.