Thursday, Oct. 12, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Gov. Kenny Guinn is tired of Democrats -- including President Clinton -- sniping at his senior citizen drug plan, which was unveiled this week and will start in January.
Guinn is preparing letters to Clinton and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., to defend the state's $5 million program in which 10,000 to 12,000 low-income seniors will be eligible for subsidies for a prescription drug insurance policy.
"It seems there are a lot of people talking about this issue, but the governor is the only one who has done something so far," Guinn's press secretary, Jack Finn, said. "He's frustrated by the politics in this debate."
Clinton, appearing in Pittsburgh Wednesday, criticized the prescription drug program of Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush and said it was similar to Nevada, where private insurance companies would run the project. Clinton said not one insurance company has taken up Nevada on its offer.
"That's one thing I admire about the Republicans," Clinton told the Washington Post. "Evidence never fazes them."
In the first go-around, Nevada received only one bid to run the drug program and that company was not licensed in the state. The second bidding process produced five proposals, and Pharmaceutical Care Network was selected as the contractor.
Guinn's letter wants the president to set the record straight.
"Allow me to respectfully suggest you check your facts before criticizing the plan in public," the governor said in the letter to Clinton.
Meanwhile David Cherry, a campaign coordinator for Vice President Al Gore in Nevada, also suggested the Guinn program was too limited. Appearing before Seniors United in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Cherry said the Guinn and Bush plans were similar.
Gore's proposal, Cherry said, would cover an estimated 200,000 Nevadans on Medicare, compared with the 10,000 to 12,000 people eligible for the Guinn subsidy.
Cherry said today he was not criticizing Guinn and added that the governor made a good call by not waiting for the federal government. "But why stop there?" he asked. "The scope (of Guinn's program) is limited."
The Gore program, Cherry said, would cover 20 times as many people in Nevada than the Guinn plan. And seniors, he said would pay only $25 a month under Gore's plan compared with the lowest $34 premium in the state's program.
"If anybody wants to come up with a plan that also complements the governor's program, we're all for that," Finn said. "But the governor is frustrated when he sets out to help seniors and there are those who want to make this a partisan debate."
The Clinton administration and Congress have been talking about prescription drugs for seniors for a year, but nothing has been enacted, Finn said. "He's (Guinn) going to move forward and he has done so successfully."
Berkley, in urging support for a drug program in Medicare, had criticized the Guinn program that uses the private sector in fashioning the relief for senior citizens.
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