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Kaiser Permanente won't cover Viagra

OAKLAND, Calif., June 19 -- Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest health maintenance organization, says it won't pay for the anti- impotence drug Viagra. The HMO announced today that national coverage of 10 Viagra pills a month for patients with prescriptions for it would cost at least $100 million a year, far exceeding the $59 million it spent last year for all anti-viral drugs, including protease inhibitors for the treatment of HIV. Dr. Francis Crosson, executive director of the Permanente Foundation, said, 'We could, of course, build the cost of Viagra into everyone's premium, but is that the right thing to do?...As more and more similar drugs appear with increasing frequency, we are facing the very real possibility that health care in America will become so expensive that no one will be able to afford medical care.'

Kaiser Permanente says it will continue to cover all medical care associated with the evaluation and treatment of sexual dysfunction, except for the cost of pharmaceuticals. Large employers will be offered an optional supplemental benefit for coverage of Viagra and other drugs for sexual dysfunction, and Viagra will be available in Kaiser Permanente pharmacies. The HMO says a national panel of Kaiser Permanente physicians, pharmacists, ethicists and health policy experts considered coverage options for Viagra. Kaiser Permanente has 9.1 million members in 19 states and Washington DC. ---

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