The Senate race in Nevada is getting dirty. Real dirty.
In a new commercial slamming her opponent Harry Reid, Republican Sharron Angle claims that the Senate Majority Leader voted on a bill that would, “pay for Viagra for convicted child molesters and sex offenders.”
Both candidates have done a bit of smearing in what has proved to be a hotly contested race, but perhaps Angle has strayed a bit farther from the truth than she should have.
Various news agencies, including the Associated Press, have analyzed the commercial and all have said that Angle is being more than unfair. She’s being untruthful.
The law she is referring to was actually just a proposed amendment to the federal health care bill. In an effort to delay the bill’s passing in the Senate, Republican Senator Tom Coburn introduced an amendment that would explicitly prohibit any federal money from funding the purchase of erectile dysfunction drugs by registered sex offenders.
The general consensus was and is that Mr Coburn and the Republicans were perpetrating a political stunt. The Democrats stuck together and the amendment promptly died.
While there is no doubt that Democrats were not trying to subsidize ED drugs for child molesters and rapists, it is distinctly possible that some federal money will end up doing just that. But this already happens. Had they voted for the amendment, the political process would have been gummed up and the bill might have, through the magic of Washington, never been passed.
It is worth noting that the law does not take effect until 2014, so there is a lot of room to introduce a provision that explicitly prohibits ED meds for sex offenders.
Mr. Coburn also tried to introduce amendments that would have done the following:
- Revoke the powers of the Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Make it impossible to hire a government health care worker without first firing one
- Require the President and Cabinet Members to buy healthcare through the new government act
- Issue a public referendum on gay marriage in Washington, D.C.
Those are just some of the purely politically motivated and sometimes unrelated amendments introduced to sabotage the bill.
But many are now asking the question, will Viagra for non-predators be covered?
That question is very much up in the air.
Many of the problems Republicans seemed to have with the bill focused on the wasteful spending, or non-medically essential procedures, that might be covered under the plan that President Obama campaigned for. While the protests have begun with a focus on prohibiting ED drug coverage for “sex predators”, some in the media have been speculating that it will not stop there.
Experts say that, as the public will still be able to choose their healthcare plan, it will likely depend on the policy whether you are covered or not. Others have said that the loophole of blood pressure treatment might be another way to get the medications with federal plans.
And the success of Sharron Angle’s ad? Well, we won’t know until the polls close. But, historically, fewer voters read the fact-check than see the commercials. On the other hand, mud slinging and negative campaigning can backfire. Angle may have undermined her credibility on this one, and that’s one dysfunction that Viagra can’t fix.
Continue reading Erectile Dysfunction and the New Healthcare: What’s new?
