Senators, candidate focus on high drug prices

Benjamin Grove

Wednesday, June 21, 2000 | 10:03 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- The issue of affordable prescription drugs for Medicare recipients has become a hot political issue in Nevada and Congress.

Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., on Tuesday during a Capitol Hill press conference stood with five Senate colleagues to introduce a bill they hailed as the only plan in Congress that offers prescription drug coverage to all Medicare recipients, regardless of income.

They see their proposal, the Medicare Outpatient Drug (MOD) Act, as a "bipartisan" compromise that Republicans and Democrats would embrace. The bill's six primary supporters include one Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Nevada Democratic Senate candidate Ed Bernstein made a publicity trek by plane and bus to Tijuana, Mexico, with eight Nevada seniors to draw attention to the high cost of prescription drugs in the United States.

The seniors found many of their prescription drugs in Mexico priced more cheaply -- in one case one-sixth the price -- than in U.S. pharmacies.

Bud Malcolm, 73, a retired mechanical engineer from Reno, said he paid $275 out of pocket each month for some of the 14 medications he takes. His HMO pays for some of the drugs.

"I'm on Social Security, and that's the only income I have right now," Malcolm said Tuesday in a telephone interview during a stop in San Diego. "Fortunately I live with one daughter, and she supplements my expenses. Without her I don't know how I would survive."

Bernstein said, "People are fed up with the influence of the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical companies in Congress and all the money that gets spent on lobbying.

"People are starting to say, 'We can have a voice.' This is going to be a great rallying cry for the next Congress."

The Bryan and Bernstein events came one day after a public tiff between Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn and Nevada's Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley over a planned Nevada program to provide drug price relief to seniors. Guinn and the state Legislature support the plan; Berkley criticized it as a GOP failure in the making and an example of what not to do on a national scale.

It's no coincidence prescription drugs are the hottest political issue of the moment, several senators said.

"In part, I'm sure, (because) it's an election year," Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said. "But we're here to help our constituents."

Chafee added, "If constituents start to say it enough, politicians start to listen -- we hope anyway."

Bryan said after the press conference, "Prescription drugs are an essential component of health care today. That wasn't true in 1965.

"It's my sense that members of both parties do not want to adjourn the 106th Congress and be out on the hustings without passing a plan for prescription drug coverage."

Bryan said the MOD plan is unique in that it is understandable, consistent year-to-year, and targets everyone reliant on Medicare, including 195,000 seniors and 28,000 people with disabilities in Nevada.

Bryan staffers said that about 12 percent of Nevadans are elderly. But that could increase to 21 percent in 25 years.

President Clinton, also vocal on the issue, and congressional Republicans have battled over who should receive prescription drug coverage. Republicans target only low-income elderly; Clinton argues higher-income recipients also should be eligible.

The MOD plan unveiled Tuesday would cost roughly $235 billion over 10 years, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., said. Clinton's plan is slightly less expensive. Republicans have said their plans would cost half as much.