Graham criticizes drug benefit bill

WASHINGTON - Last year, Florida's Democratic Sen. Bob Graham authored a $400-billion Medicare drug benefit plan that won the support of AARP.

At the time, William Novelli, AARP's chief executive officer, said of Graham's plan: "We think this is the best we can get for our members. It's a framework to go back and work on."

But Congress adjourned last year without enacting a drug bill for seniors, and now Graham is speaking out against a $400-billion Medicare drug benefit that AARP has supported for the same reason.

What has changed?

Graham, in an interview, said seniors would have liked his proposal, but they will not like the current plan. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the bill by early next week.

"I do not think this benefit structure is going to be acceptable to seniors," the senator said, adding that AARP "made the right decision in 2002 and they made the wrong judgment in 2003."

Critics, however, say Democrats such as Graham have switched sides because the current plan was drafted by Republicans, and Democratic party strategists do not want President Bush to get credit for it.

"There are some Republican political pundits who would like to do a Republican-only bill and then blame Democrats if it doesn't pass," said Sen. John Breaux, D-La. "On the other hand, there are some Democratic political pundits who don't want to give President Bush a victory."

All the candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination except Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut have opposed the GOP proposal now pending in Congress. And the two top Democratic congressional leaders, Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, have castigated AARP for supporting it.

Pelosi said opposition to the bill is a "party position," but many rank-and-file Democrats - including Florida's Sen. Bill Nelson and Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa - are still pondering how they will vote. Even Graham was waiting to read it before committing himself to vote against it.

"No state stands to gain or lose more than Florida," Davis said.

Bush's willingness to create a new $400-billion entitlement program is viewed by Democrats as a preelection-year ploy to bolster his sagging popularity. In fact, many Republicans cringe at the idea that Bush is willing to embrace the biggest expansion of government benefits since President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs.

Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana argued that the GOP's legislation has strayed too far from Bush's philosophy.

"Compassionate conservatism is about focusing solutions on the people with the need," he said. "While the need for some type of benefit is real, the need for a universal benefit is not."

According to Graham, seniors with monthly drug expenditures of $140 or less would pay more to get prescriptions filled with the government benefit. As a result, he predicted many would opt out of the plan, which is voluntary, causing it to collapse.

With a $35 monthly premium, Medicare beneficiaries would pay the first $250 in drug costs. Then the government would pay 75 percent up to $2,200, nothing more up to $3,600 and 95 percent thereafter.

Under the bill that Graham co-wrote with Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., in July 2002, seniors with incomes up to about $12,000 would have received comprehensive drug coverage. But higher income seniors would have received no assistance until their out-of-pocket spending reached $4,000, then they would have been asked for a $10 copayment on each refill.

Graham said he fears seniors will reject this plan as they did the 1980s catastrophic care measure, which was repealed a year after enactment. He cited a new poll conducted by Democratic pollster Peter Hart showing that the more seniors learn about the plan, the more they oppose it.

But AARP lobbyist John Rother said this bill cannot be compared to the unpopular catastrophic care measure, which was a mandatory program that charged progressively higher rates for seniors with higher incomes. Under the current bill, seniors do not start paying more for outpatient Medicare coverage until their annual income reaches $80,000 for an individual and $160,000 for a couple.

"I don't think you are going to see those people marching in the street," Rother said.

Meanwhile, AARP released the results of a membership poll showing 75 percent support for the plan. Eighty percent of middle- and high-income seniors supported the bill primarily because it would help the low-income seniors with high prescription drug costs, AARP said.

Rother said AARP decided to support the Republican bill because the benefit could be improved by Congress in future years.

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