EDITORIAL
Partisan rivalry hurts chances for a drug plan
Anyone who spends a few hundred, if not a few thousand, dollars a month on prescription drugs should feel let down by the U.S. Senate's rejection of yet another plan to offer Medicare prescription benefits to the elderly.
Two years ago, President Bush and congressional candidates made campaign promises to ease the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare. So far, they've failed to deliver.
Under the latest Democrat plan, rejected yesterday, the government would have spent $390 billion over the next decade to provide desperately needed drug coverage for older, low-income Americans.
Instead, the Senate approved two less controversial initiatives to encourage development of low-cost generic drugs and allow importers to buy U.S.-made drugs in Canada, where they're cheaper.
It's a start, but it doesn't let Congress off the hook.
Indeed, as Democrats and Republicans bicker over how best to help the needy elderly with soaring pharmacy bills, drugs aren't getting cheaper.
As Bush has pointed out, Medicare, which does not cover prescription drugs administered outside the hospital, has not kept pace with the advances in medicine, and it's time to catch up.
Perhaps they should look to Hawai'i. We just passed two landmark bills intended to make prescription drugs more affordable. The measures create a state-run prescription drug discount program for all residents and a Medicaid prescription drug discount for low-income residents.
Meanwhile, the Senate has defeated four drug benefit plans in recent weeks. The first, favored by Democrats, would have spent $594 billion on a 10-year government-run Medicare program to provide benefits to all 40 million seniors on Medicare.
Another plan endorsed by Bush and the Republicans would have spent $370 billion on limited benefits administered by private insurers and a third Republican-backed plan would have spent $170 billion on coverage for the neediest elderly.
It seems that each party wants to take credit for a plan that impresses America's elderly voters, and thus are holding back a compromise. But older voters are fast losing patience, so we suggest senators on both sides of the aisle get it together soon.
