BANGOR – U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe told a group of senior citizens Wednesday that she plans to introduce a bill next month with Democratic and independent sponsors to give seniors prescription drug coverage through Medicare. The Maine Republican said she wants a plan enacted this year.

“If I have to be a one-woman juggernaut on prescription drugs I’m going to be,” she said.

Snowe said problems with access to drugs and other health care must be dealt with immediately because “seniors can’t delay their illnesses.”

She discussed the plan with senior citizens who had come from across central and northern Maine to the offices of the Eastern Agency on Aging. It would create a drug benefit for all seniors using Medicare. It also would offer enhanced medical benefits for a premium that might be in the range of $35 to $45 a month.

Snowe said her prescription plan, which will be one of several before Congress, would:

. Guarantee affordable drug coverage for all seniors;

. Target help to those with low incomes and high drug costs;

. Guarantee traditional Medicare benefits; and

. Provide full coverage for catastrophic medical care costs for any senior whose out-of-pocket expenses exceeded $6,000.

Snowe also is pushing for the modernization of Medicare as part of the package, which would cost $350 billion over 10 years, the amount already set aside by Congress. The proposal would eliminate quirks in the system, such as a requirement that Medicare recipients pay for the first three pints of blood they need, said Mark L. Hayes, Snowe’s senior health policy advisor.

Snowe said the plan would not attempt price controls. But she said she would push for a law allowing citizens to buy drugs from Canada at less expensive Canadian prices. That would enhance competition and likely spur market changes in the United States, she said.

“It’s tragic that our policies are designed to drive seniors over the border,” she told her audience.

Speakers in the group, members of which came from Bangor, Brewer, Greenville, Millinocket, Sebec, Milo and elsewhere, were quick to criticize drug companies for advertising so heavily and for claiming that price reductions would hamper research and development.

Some said they were concerned about the monthly price for the additional coverage that seniors could elect to pay. None suggested that they shouldn’t have to pay into the system.

Snowe said setting the premium rate was still an important issue to be resolved before the plan could be unveiled next month. “The premium is obviously going to be key because if that’s not affordable to seniors then we are going to have to go back to the drawing board,” she said.

Virginia Fortier of Old Town said she is a member of the President’s Council of Retirees at the University of Maine. One question she said members had for Snowe was whether implementation of a new plan would cause employers to drop insurance they already offered employees.

Snowe said the plan is not to “preclude the existing system. We strive to create a system that doesn’t create that perverse incentive,” she said.