AARP supports deal on Medicare

The backing of the powerful seniors group gives Republicans a stronger chance of beating back Democratic opposition to the legislation.

WASHINGTON - With backing from the influential AARP, Republicans expressed optimism Monday that Congress would quickly enact a $400-billion bill providing a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

"I think it's going to pass," Medicare administrator Tom Scully declared after a White House meeting between President Bush and the congressional leaders who negotiated a proposed House-Senate Medicare compromise.

Scully made his prediction even though two leading Democrats, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., condemned the measure on grounds it would alter the Medicare program that seniors have come to rely upon since it was created in 1965.

"Though far from perfect,"' the AARP said in a statement, "the bill represents a historic breakthrough and an important milestone in the nation's commitment to strengthen and expand health security for citizens at a time when it is sorely needed."

The group will spend $7-million on a three-day, nationwide television advertising campaign to promote the bill.

The American Medical Association and American Hospital Association also endorsed it, but the AFL-CIO called on Congress to defeat it.

Republicans tirelessly courted AARP support in order to make it more difficult for liberal Democrats to oppose the bill.

"It's going to be hard for people to vote against this now," said Rep. Mike Bilirakis, R-Tarpon Springs, one of the GOP conferees who met with the president.

But the AARP's move left many Democrats angry. House Democratic leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California said she was "deeply disappointed that AARP's national leadership has been co-opted by Republicans."

But the AARP's endorsement did not come as a surprise to Democrats. The organization had made a number of favorable comments about the compromise in recent days. While AARP officials were disappointed the drug benefit was not more generous, they said that a commitment of $400-billion over the next 10 years was far too much money to reject.

Bush said the final votes this week would "demonstrate whether the members of the House and Senate will help keep our commitment to America's seniors." Like the AARP, the president pledged to do whatever he could to win enactment.

A spokesman for Florida Sen. Bob Graham said the Democrat "almost certainly" will vote against the bill. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, said they hadn't decided how they will vote. But Nelson's press secretary, Dan McLaughlin, added: "You might see him vote for it."

McLaughlin said Nelson had been getting calls from constituents who need a prescription drug benefit and the senator would more likely follow the will of Florida seniors than Kennedy's entreaties.

Sen. John Breaux, D-La., one of two Democrats who took part in the negotiations that produced the compromise, predicted at least 10 Democrats would support it in the Senate, perhaps enough to undercut a possible filibuster.

"I think we will see a bipartisan show of support in both the House and Senate," Breaux said.

Likewise, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., downplayed the possibility House GOP conservatives would revolt against the measure, as some have threatened.

"We delivered what our conservatives wanted," Hastert said.

Kennedy, in a emotional speech on the Senate floor, attacked a provision of the bill that would experiment with having the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program compete on price against private plans for seniors. He said this would force seniors who want to stay in the current program to pay more for their care.

Kennedy was referring to a provision that would create experimental programs in six metropolitan regions beginning in 2010. In those areas, private and public plans would get the identical government subsidy for every patient they enroll, and seniors wanting the higher-cost plans with more services would have to pay higher premiums. Kennedy's materials suggested two of those programs could be located in Florida.

Kennedy also complained the bill creates a "slush fund" of $12-billion to encourage private health care plans to participate in Medicare.

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