Medicare may cut $444 million in erection aid spending

(Bloomberg) — Congress is poised to prohibit Medicare from spending an estimated $444 million for vacuum pumps used to treat erectile dysfunction in the next decade, a cost-saving move that may frustrate people who can’t afford drugs such as Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra.

Medicare’s prescription-drug benefit, created in 2003, generally isn’t permitted to cover Viagra or other erectile-dysfunction medicines. A bill under consideration by Congress would put a similar ban on the pump devices some people use as an alternative. The spending estimate was published yesterday by the Congressional Budget Office.

Cutting Medicare coverage of the pumps will help offset the cost of creating new tax-advantaged savings accounts for severely disabled people. The accounts would help them qualify for programs for low-income people, such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income, because most of the savings wouldn’t be considered assets.