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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush will propose offering pharmacy discount cards to older Americans to help the elderly with soaring prescription drug costs, officials said on Wednesday.
In a preemptive strike against Democrats, who made health-care reform their top priority after taking control of the Senate, Bush on Thursday will outline his principles for modernizing Medicare and providing prescription drug benefits to the millions of older Americans in the federal health insurance program.
A Bush administration official said one part of the plan will call for offering pharmacy discount cards to all older Americans by the end of next year.
The plan would rely on companies that buy prescription drugs in bulk and pass the discounts on to
Medicare patients, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The move could help Bush regain some momentum on health care, lost after the Democrat-led Senate brushed aside a White House veto threat and approved a far-reaching patients' bill of rights that would give Americans sweeping new powers to sue health maintenance organizations and insurers.
Bush's principles were expected to call for a voluntary, universal prescription drug benefit for Medicare beneficiaries. A new agency would oversee a public-private sector system, boosting competition between health plans and lowering drug prices, Senate aides said.
While not confirming the plan for a discount card, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites) said: ``The point is that the president believes that seniors need help with prescription drug coverage, and he wants to do everything he can to provide it.''
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