Thaindian News

August 9, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): With the district facing hard times due to the current financial crunch that has resulted in downsizing the strength of its members, the Milwaukee teachers union is gathering force to voice their demands to get the taxpayer-funded Viagra back. The union wants the school board to revise the health insurance plans meant for the teachers and to add Pfizer Inc’s erectile dysfunction drug to the plans. The Milwaukee teachers, while fighting for Viagra coverage have purposefully approached a judge to take steps to meet their demand.

It is the latest phase of the campaign that the union has been carrying out against the school board for the last two years. They have criticized the board’s policy of discriminating against the male employees by excluding erectile dysfunction drugs from the health plans. But the previous arguments bore no fruit. The union insists on including Viagra, Levitra, Cialis and similar other pills in the health insurance plans for necessary treatment of a particular gender-related condition.

But, according to the lawyers for the school board, the exclusion of the drugs dates back to 2005 and it was merely a cost-cutting measure, not any means of discrimination. The lawyers also said that the erectile dysfunction drugs were used basically for recreational sex and not for the sake of medical necessity.

Besides voicing their demand for Viagra coverage in the health insurance plans, the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association has launched a protest against the layoff notices issued to reduce the number of teachers in the coming academic year. Being forced by the financial crisis that has resulted from an increase in benefit costs and a nosedive in revenues, the district’s outgoing superintendent had proposed laying off as many as 682 employees in the month of April this year.