House Panel to Draw Up Drug Proposal for Seniors

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert will appoint a task force today to devise a prescription drug coverage plan for senior citizens, according to his aides.

The issue is how best to serve elderly Americans who lack drug benefits. President Clinton has proposed providing all seniors with drug insurance through Medicare, while House Republicans back a more market-based approach aimed at low-income senior citizens.

Hastert (R-Ill.) has asked the heads of two key committees, Ways and Means and Commerce, to develop a joint proposal that can be voted on this spring. The two panels will hold hearings on the issue next month.

Although Republicans have not yet completed their drug plan, they said it would provide the elderly poor with greater coverage without threatening pharmaceutical research or forcing the elderly into a government-run program.

“We must find ways to help give those seniors who need it better access to affordable prescription drugs,” Hastert said in a statement. “We will do it in a way that does not threaten the solvency of the Medicare program.”

GOP lawmakers are exploring several ways that could make prescription drugs more accessible. Among them:

* Providing block grants to the states, similar to those with which Medicaid funds are distributed for children.

* Giving a tax credit to poor Americans whose annual incomes are as much as twice poverty level, or about $18,000 a couple.

* Allowing low- and middle-income seniors to buy insurance as a group so they could exercise greater purchasing power over pharmaceutical companies.

* Creating tax-free retirement savings accounts.

Democratic leaders, however, are likely to resist such proposals. Clinton has vowed to provide prescription drug coverage for all 33.4 million seniors who receive Medicare. At least 10 million Medicare recipients, for example, would not qualify for the GOP plan.

Republicans say they are exploring whether they can provide more comprehensive coverage but are focusing more on poor seniors.

House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said Republicans should create a bipartisan task force if they want to craft compromise legislation.

“It sounds to me like another sidetrack approach, where they realize this is popular in the polls and people want it on the floor, but rather than putting bills on the floor . . . they set up task forces and try to come up with derivative ideas that don’t solve the problem,” Gephardt said. “The key component in the president’s plan--and I think he’s going to emphasize this in his State of the Union speech--is that it’s universal. It’s voluntary and universal.”

In the coming weeks, Democrats are hoping to employ House procedures to push for floor votes on two separate bills, one that provides a Medicare drug benefit and another that gives seniors leverage by allowing group drug purchases.