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Question:
I have fairly comprehensive health insurance coverage from my employer, but I really don’t know whether it provides coverage for Viagra or other ED drugs.
Do most health plans cover these drugs?
Jacob C., Reston, VA
Who Is ED Staff
August 2, 2019 at 10:37 pm
Answer:
As things now stand, very few health insurance plans cover Viagra or any other ED drug. Now that generic equivalents of Viagra and three of the other brand-name ED medications are available, it might not be long before some degree of coverage is forthcoming, but nothing is definite.
Some health plans do cover (with varying co-pays) 20-milligram tablets of sildenafil citrate, which is the active ingredient in Viagra but also for Revatio, a drug prescribed to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.
To approximate the recommended starting dose for treating ED, your doctor would have to prescribe two to three 20-milligram tablets, and that would represent what’s considered an off-label prescription, a practice frowned upon by many medical professionals.
The advent of generic equivalents for four of the five brand-name ED drugs has put these medications within the financial reach of many more patients than was previously the case.
But as of now, insurers have not yet stepped up to the plate to offer ED drug coverage.
For more information click Viagra and Healthcare coverages
Thanks
Who Is ED Staff