Rx DRUG COSTS I: Will GOP Senators Respond to Proposals?

      While Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said "it may take a year or so to come up with the right proposal" for Medicare prescription drug coverage, other Senate Republicans have been eager to get into the fray, "particularly those facing re-election or those from states bordering other countries," Congress Daily/A.M. reports. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chair James Jeffords (R- Vt.) co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) to allow wholesalers and pharmacies to purchase FDA-approved drugs in Canada, where they are less expensive. Sen. William Roth (R- Del.), "has been exploring the drug coverage issue" for the Senate GOP and a spokesperson for his office said, "We've been working on our own timeline ... We will not be bound by political deadlines or political pressure." Roth has been out due to back surgery.

Responses to Dems' Proposal
      At a congressional hearing yesterday, Republican lawmakers "questioned the affordability -- for seniors and the government - - of the Democrats' latest plan to add prescription drug coverage to Medicare (AP/Baltimore Sun, 5/12). The proposal expands President Clinton's plan, adding "catastrophic protection" for Medicare recipients who have already paid $3,000 in out-of-pocket drug expenses. House Republicans have already rolled out their own drug coverage proposal, "which they hope to turn into legislative language by late spring," according to House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) (Fulton, Congress Daily A.M., 5/12).