A Workable Plan Is The Main Thing

“Every night you are sleeping with the enemy - yourself.”

So said one 60-something senior recently, commenting on the aches and pains and surprising ailments that can plague those who grow older. Not all women and men in their 60s, 70s and 80s have ailments or need medications. But many do. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis and heart problems don’t kill as easily as they used to, thanks to an arsenal of drugs that help keep older people healthy. But these drugs do not come cheap.

According to a Families USA study released a few weeks ago, prescription drugs account for 10 percent of health care costs for seniors. This figure is expected to rise to 13 percent by 2010. Americans 65 and older pay an average of $1,205 a year for those drugs - up from $559 in 1992.

The cost is especially cruel to most seniors who worked hard all their lives, paid into medical plans, and now must depend on Medicare, which doesn’t cover prescription drugs. Even more unfair, seniors often pay full price for the expensive drugs they need because they aren’t subsidized by any health plan.

This injustice has been brewing for years. Seniors have complained for years. But it took an election to finally bring it into the mainstream, to finally interest the politicians and the baby boomer press that covers them.

The good news: This means the problem might finally be solved. Everyone has a plan. Vice President Al Gore’s 10-year, $250 billion plan would add the benefit to Medicare. Taxpayers would pay for a large portion of it. Texas Gov. George Bush thinks a private prescription drug insurance program would work better.

One of the more creative plans to surface came from the desk of Gov. Gary Locke, who proposed Tuesday that the state of Washington become a kind of Costco for prescription drugs. Seniors would pay a yearly fee of $15 and benefit from discount prices on drugs that the state can secure because of its volume-buying power. Discounts will range from 12 percent to 49 percent.

State employees already receive discounts through the state’s agreement with the pharmaceutical benefits company Merck-Medco. Locke’s plan would simply open the discounts to seniors.

Locke has been accused of using the prescription drug problem as means of securing an election year boost in popularity. So what? Bush and Gore can be accused of the same. They know that older women and men vote in greater numbers than younger people.

Motives don’t matter as much as the potential benefits. If seniors finally get access to much-deserved affordable drugs, this election season will be one of the most successful in history.