The Senior Center for Health & Security

Congress Cuts Senior Health Care by
Ending Medicare Coverage of ED Treatments

Earlier this Fall, Congress took the cruel and inhumane step of prohibiting Medicare and Medicaid from paying for medications to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) - calling them "lifestyle" drugs instead of the lifesavers seniors know them to be.

ED is a legitimate medical problem often associated with the aging process in men. It can bring about severe emotional distress in both the men and their partners. In many, if not most cases, ED comes as a result of other medical causes. It can be a side effect of some medications, including those commonly prescribed for depression, heart disease, high blood pressure, and epilepsy. Hardening of the arteries, heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes can all cause ED. Groin injuries; tobacco and alcohol abuse can also be causal factors.

Some of the most common causes of ED are necessary medical procedures, including urinary tract and prostate surgery. At a May 2005 meeting of the American Urological Association, two studies were released regarding the aftermath of prostate surgery and related radiation treatment. In the first, 89 percent of the 1,300 men participating in the study suffered from ED six months after surgery, and 71 percent still suffered from ED five years later. In the second study, 70 percent of the men suffered ED two years after prostate surgery, compared to 61 percent of the men who suffered ED two years after radiation treatments.

Excluding skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Prostate cancer is indeed a growing menace, and those afflicted with ED will be growing as well. Many of those cancer survivors can be successfully treated for ED - with the appropriate medications.

Under broad-based government programs like Medicare and Medicaid, the worst possible model for reimbursement policy would be one based on some narrow political opinion of what is medically necessary to maintain health and happiness. That decision should be made by the patient and the physician in consultation, not by a bureaucrat, and certainly not by some elected official.

In addition to being a cruel attack on our nation's elders, the ED reimbursement ban sets a terrible precedent -- a slippery slope with no end in sight. What other quality of life treatments will come under fire next? Would we ban funding for sleep aids, or vision aids, or diabetes maintenance treatments related to obesity? What about smoking related illnesses and the results of substance abuse? Who will be the ultimate grand arbitrator of these quality of life issues?

The Senior Center for Health and Security believes patients and their physicians should be making these critical decisions to determine their health and happiness, not the government.