Political prescription

Democrats will be leaving the party's national convention this week determined to defeat President Bush on a key issue for elderly voters: prescription drug coverage under Medicare.

"We're going to make it backfire on him," said Martin Berger, 75, a delegate from Pennsylvania and president of the state chapter of the Alliance for Retired Americans, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. "It's numero uno with us."

Bush last year broke the Republican mold and backed a giant government program, the $530 billion, 10-year Medicare prescription benefit. With discount cards this year and full coverage in 2006, the law provides the first drug coverage under the national health insurance program for people over 65.

But the political rewards have eluded Bush thus far. Polls have shown that most Americans are either dissatisfied with the law, baffled by its details, or unaware of its intended benefits. Polls have also found overwhelming support for legalizing the importation of lower-cost prescriptions from Canada.

During his acceptance speech Thursday night, Democratic presidential candidate Senator John F. Kerry called for better drug coverage so that "senior citizens never have to cut their pills in half." He also said he favored allowing Americans to purchase medicines from Canada and other countries, where price controls make drugs 20 to 80 percent cheaper than in the United States. The mantra for affordable healthcare was heard throughout the week among convention speakers.

While Democrats support a Medicare drug benefit, they blame Bush for coverage gaps and high costs in the bill that passed last year. Democrats say a key flaw is that the new law prohibits the government from negotiating with the drug industry for price discounts.

Kerry spokesman Bill Burton said Bush has hurt his standing among seniors and called the Medicare benefit an "albatross around his neck." The Media Fund, a Democratic group operating independently of the Kerry campaign, ran television commercials this year that accused Bush of siding with drug companies.

A Bush spokesman, Terry Holt, accused Kerry of using scare tactics to fend off Republican gains among seniors. "This is the same old scare-seniors approach that Democrats have been using for over a generation," said Holt.

Americans are not yet familiar with the Medicare bill's benefits because it is being phased in over time, he said. Once they learn about its benefits, he added, they will understand how much it helps them. "Without President Bush's leadership, there would still be no prescription drugs provided under Medicare," said Holt.

The pharmaceutical industry, which lobbies heavily on Capitol Hill, has heavily favored Republican candidates for president and Congress for at least a decade, by ratio of about 2 to 1, according to data maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan Washington research group.

Meanwhile, the cost of drugs has emerged as a major national issue as families, employers, and the government search for ways to control healthcare costs. A study this year by AARP, the Washington lobbying group representing people over 50, found that prices on drugs popular among seniors rose 27.6 percent from 2000 to 2003, compared to an inflation rate of 10.4 percent.

Delegates at this week's convention said they would push the prescription drug issue in crucial swing states. The Alliance for Retired Americans is gearing up a major push across the country. Berger said he and 14 other volunteers are traveling to senior centers and nursing homes throughout Pennsylvania to criticize Bush on the issue.

Diane Glasser, a Kerry delegate from Florida's Broward County, said elderly voters in a critical battleground state will be highly receptive to the Democrats' message as the campaign heats up. "For senior citizens, drugs are on the front burner," she said. "Drug costs keep going up and up and up."

The primary criticism of the Medicare bill is that it doesn't allow the government to use its market clout as the drug industry's largest customer to negotiate lower prices. The prohibition on negotiating was a key victory for the industry when the bill was being considered by Congress last year.

Besides supporting government-negotiated prices and importation of lower-cost drugs, Kerry also has issued a call for prescription benefit management companies to reveal the profits they make on federal business.

Christopher Rowland can be reached at crowland@globe.com.