Sure, Viagra is a lifestyle medication that’s not considered a “life-saving” or even “pain-relieving” drug. But that doesn’t make patients who use the medication any less angered about the 20-percent price increase Viagra experienced between the first quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

Although the cost of Viagra is not covered by Medicare (not since 2005) or health insurance providers, most Viagra patients suffer from a known medical condition – erectile dysfunction. Doctors and researchers agree that ED is a condition with causes that are almost always physical, not psychological.

Therefore, the great majority of ED patients have no way to cure their condition without taking a safe and proven medication. Right now, Viagra, Cialis and Levitra are the only ED medications that are FDA-approved.

So where does this leave the U.S. consumer? Emptying his wallet of more and more cash.

Prices of brand-name medications are rising much faster than inflation. Without healthcare reform, this trend will make many medications unaffordable to even more patients than those who already can’t afford them.

In an Associated Press article, the AARP points out that the prices manufacturers charged for the most widely used brand name drugs rose 8.7 percent in 2008, higher than in years past. The general inflation rate in 2008 was 3.8 percent.

As the New Yorker points out in an extremely educational article: “The perception that the drug industry is profiteering at the expense of the American consumer has given pharmaceutical firms a reputation on a par with that of cigarette manufacturers.”

One interesting point made in this article is that generic medications are very inexpensive (and getting even cheaper in this down economy) in America. This is requiring many older Americans to switch over to generic meds, if they are available.

But many medications, such as Viagra (its patent expires in 2012) do not have generic alternatives - which is how companies such as Pfizer can, and do, make as much money as they can while they have the monopoly on a drug. There is nothing to stop them. And there are more pharma lobbyists on Capitol Hill than there are lawmakers.

FiercePharma.com is another good source of information when it comes to all things pharmaceutical. Their source says a dozen top-selling medications increased by double-digit percentages from 2008 to (first quarter) 2009, including Eli Lilly’s Cialis, which went up 14.2 percent.