Election year drug bills

Rather than be stuck in Washington during a campaign year, members of Congress make it a habit to spend increasing amounts of time talking than actually doing, applying their verbosity as a sort of balm on public expectation. So while any number of Medicare overhauls have been proposed, outlined and debated, none are expected to pass this year. Prescription drug coverage for seniors, however, may be a different matter because of increasing pressure from constituents.

The problem is easy enough to see. Of the 39 million Medicare recipients, approximately one-third have no prescription-drug coverage and many more have inadequate coverage. Drug prices have been rising at double-digit inflation here while held low in nations to the north and south and, in the United States, by health-maintenance organizations. Seniors, particularly poor seniors, are increasingly finding that they must choose between paying for medication or for other necessities of life, like food and heat. And, most importantly, they are letting members of Congress know about it.

Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe and Rep. Tom Allen are in the middle of this debate, each with a different approach but the same goal of expanding coverage. Sen. Snowe would spend approximately $15 billion a year to cover seniors on a means-tested scale, with a minimum premium coverage of 25 percent. Rep. Allen would have Medicare administrators act as if they were running an HMO and negotiate lower drug prices for seniors. Drug companies, of course, deeply dislike Rep. Allen’s bill and see Sen. Snowe’s as more palatable. Nearly 150 House Democrats have signed a discharge petition to force leadership to consider the Allen bill.

A comprehensive approach to the prescription drug problem — and one that holds up when Congress gets back to working on Medicare — requires that both approaches be used: expanding premium coverage at one end and keeping an eye on rising prices at the other. The balance of the two proposals reduces the pharmaceutical companies’ complaint that the Allen proposal would cut research funding and it ensures that tax dollars are used more effectively.

Nothing happens, however, unless voters keep the heat on. Members of Congress may have too many hands to shake and speeches to give to get serious about the large task of putting Medicare on sounder financial footing, but they can do something about prescription drugs. Two plans from Maine show the way.