Gore, Lieberman Stress Prescription Costs

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Democratic ticket of Al Gore and Joseph I. Lieberman pressed its plan to add prescription drug benefits to Medicare in separate appearances Monday that appealed to seniors and attacked the Republicans.

Gore, the Democratic nominee for president, appeared with elderly voters here in Florida where he spotlighted four seniors who told wrenching stories about the difficulty of paying for medications they need.

The vice president noted that drugs offered by veterinarians are sometimes cheaper than the same medication sold for people--and some elderly take advantage of this, seeking drugs from vets.

“That’s pretty bad when you’ve got to pretend to be a dog or a cat to get a price break,” he said.

Lieberman, speaking in Chicago, issued his most extensive criticism of the Republican ticket to date, accusing GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush and running mate Richard Cheney of misleading the public by claiming they have a better plan than the Democrats to help seniors pay for prescription drugs. Bush is to announce details of his prescription drug plan next week.

Lieberman Criticizes GOP Television Ad

In a gentle but chiding tone, Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut, criticized the GOP ticket for broadcasting a television ad this week attacking Gore’s 10-year $253-billion prescription drug proposal.

“They’re actually spending more money on political prescription drug advertising than they are on their prescription drug plan,” he said, speaking to union members and other supporters gathered at the Plumbers Hall in Chicago. “Take those ads off the air and put your plan on the table.”

Monday’s events continued an effort by the Democrats to focus on health care--an issue on which they sense an advantage. The topic is highlighted in a series of new television ads launched recently by the Bush campaign as well as both of the major parties.

The attention on health care once again prevented the Republican campaign from focusing on its daily goals Monday. Bush called a news conference in Austin to swing attention back to education issues. He introduced a grass-roots coalition called “Educators for Bush,” and he charged that Gore has presided over a “national tragedy” in America’s schools.

But, peppered by questions about prescription drug benefits for seniors, the Texas governor finally acknowledged that he would announce the details of his plan next week during a Labor Day campaign swing.

Bush has said in the past that he supports a bipartisan congressional plan to reform Medicare as a framework to provide prescription drug coverage to seniors.

But he said for the first time Monday that--if he were president--he would sign the legislation by Sen. John B. Breaux (D-La.) and Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). It allows seniors to choose between competing private health plans--some of which would include prescription drug benefits--by helping pay for part of the coverage.

“If it were Breaux-Frist or nothing, I would sign it,” Bush said. “But I think we can make it even better. One idea is to make sure that low-income seniors are better helped in paying for prescription drugs.”

Although Bush has yet to flesh out a prescription drug plan, his communications director, Karen Hughes, said Monday that he “has talked about this since almost day one of his campaign. . . . This [Clinton-Gore] administration has talked about it for seven years and nothing’s been done.”

The health care debate also dominated the presidential race on Sunday, when Cheney said during a series of talk show interviews that the GOP plan on prescription drug coverage would be released soon.

On Monday, Lieberman seized on the admission that the Republican plan was still a work in progress.

“Just yesterday, Dick Cheney admitted what we have been saying all along: Our opponents don’t have a real prescription drug plan,” he said. “To the extent that they have a plan, my friends, with all respect, it is a bad plan that would leave at least half of all seniors with no real coverage.”

While Lieberman lashed out in the Midwest, Gore attempted to put human faces to the toll of mounting drug costs.

With his wife, Tipper, at his side here in Tallahassee, Gore shared the stories of elderly Floridians, among them Laura Dixie. Dixie, 74, told those gathered at the Florida State University meeting hall that each month she picks and chooses among the drugs prescribed for her because the $200 monthly cost for all of them is too high.

“The arthritis medicine I don’t bother with. I can delete that. I think I can handle the pain,” she told Gore.

Even before he reached the Florida State University campus, which seemed an incongruous venue for his focus on the health problems of the elderly, the vice president made a beeline for a nearby pharmacy to illustrate his message.

Speaking about the lower cost of drugs offered by veterinarians, Gore said the arthritis medication he buys for his 14-year-old black Labrador costs $37.80 a month, and the same arthritis medication taken by his mother-in-law costs $108 monthly.

If the Gore campaign is able to stick to its plan, health care will be the vice president’s focus throughout the week--from his initial stop in Tallahassee, then in Albuquerque today, and on to stops in Oregon and Washington state.

In Florida, Gore focused on the drug issue in a state where, despite population shifts, elderly citizens can be a deciding factor in close races (almost one-third of likely voters are at least 60 years old, the largest proportion in the nation).

Gore Plan Aims to Cover Half the Cost

Under Gore’s plan, the government would meet half the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare recipients with an annual limit of $5,000 per person--in other words, a $2,500 federal benefit. The Office of Management and Budget has estimated that the yearly drug expenses of 90% of Medicare beneficiaries do not reach $5,000. So-called catastrophic costs would be 100% paid by Medicare once out-of-pocket expenses reached $4,000 per person.

The vice president’s aides see the health care debate, and in particular the cost of drugs for the elderly, as political winners for Gore: Polls show Gore with a distinct advantage when voters are asked whether they think he or Bush is likely to do the best job addressing these issues.

Hughes, spokeswoman for Bush, compared Gore’s plan for prescription drug coverage for seniors to the unsuccessful effort by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to reform health care in America during the early years of her husband’s tenure in the White House.

“Al Gore is trying to do for prescription drugs precisely what Hillary Clinton tried to do to health care, and that’s [to] have government control,” Hughes said after the Bush news conference.

Bush leaves today for a three-day campaign swing through Maine, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Aides said he will focus on education issues.

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Times staff writers Megan Garvey and Maria L. La Ganga contributed to this story.