Rx DRUG COSTS: Military Benefit Should be Expanded

      With the House set to vote today on a measure that would provide 1.4 million military retirees with a Medicare prescription drug benefit, President Clinton used that proposal to shame Congress into expanding the benefit to all Medicare beneficiaries, the AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. Under the proposal, all military retirees on Medicare would buy prescription drugs through local pharmacies or a mail order program run by the Pentagon (5/17). Clinton argued that the new drug benefit would aid military recruitment efforts as well as help illustrate the need to add the benefit to Medicare (Koffler/Rovner, CongressDaily, 5/16). Clinton asserted that the plan proves that Congressional Republicans agree with him on the need to help seniors afford the cost of prescription medications. Offering a Medicare prescription drug benefit to all seniors "ought to be the next goal, because today, more than three in five American seniors lack such coverage" Clinton said (AP/Worcester Telegram & Gazette, 5/17).