Bryan drums up support for Clinton’s Medicare reform

Scott Sonner

Friday, July 9, 1999 | 10:18 a.m.

SPARKS -- Sen. Richard Bryan is helping a health care consumer group rally support for President Clinton's proposal to commit budget surpluses to Medicare reform and help pay for seniors' prescription drugs.

The Nevada Democrat said he prefers Clinton's promise to set aside 15 percent of the surplus for 15 years to pay for the drug coverage as opposed to alternative Republican-backed plans in Congress to use surpluses to pay for tax cuts.

He also likes it better than plans to use tax credits as a way to finance reimbursement for prescription drugs.

"The president's program is not a Utopia. But it is an enormously impressive first step," said Bryan, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which begins Medicare hearings July 22.

"I think it's got a chance of passing," he told about 50 people Thursday gathered at a center for seniors and the disabled.

"Another idea is to cut taxes. It's an attractive idea. We'd all like to have a tax cut," Bryan said.

"But the responsible thing to do is to make sure we protect Medicare."

Ron Pollack, executive director of the Washington-based consumer group USA Families, said he was on a "kind of traveling road show" praising Clinton's approach.

"It's the most significant potential improvement in Medicare since its creation in 1965," Pollack said.

"It is not going to be easy to get this adopted because it costs money," he said.

Under Clinton's plan, seniors could voluntarily enter a drug prescription insurance program by paying a monthly premium of $24 a month and a 50 percent copayment beginning in 2002.

By 2008, the premiums would rise to $44 a month with a 50 percent copayment.

No premiums or copayments would be required for people living at 135 percent of the poverty level or lower -- that's about $11,000 a year for a single person, $15,000 for a couple.

Pollack was highly critical of alternative reforms proposed by Sen. John Breaux, D-La., a member of the Finance Committee, and Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the Ways and Means health care subcommittee.

"I'm very concerned about those proposals," he said.

Under Breaux-Thomas, many seniors would lose health care altogether and many more would receive fewer health benefits, Pollack said.

He said it would impose greater cost-sharing requirements on seniors and people with disabilities and eventually raise the age of eligibility for Medicare from the current 65 to 67.

Bryan didn't single out Breaux-Thomas but told the group, "I endorse Ron's view.

"Clearly the president's proposal is preferable," the senator said.