Prescription Drug Plan Gets Backing

President Clinton and congressional Democrats joined forces on a prescription drug benefit for Medicare patients, increasing pressure on Republicans to agree on a drug plan this election year. Democrats in the House and Senate had wrangled over a wide array of approaches to extending a prescription drug benefit to seniors. They have now united behind a plan that would let Medicare patients defray prescription drug costs through a subsidized insurance option that would pay up to half of drug costs, up to $5,000 a year. Beneficiaries would pay at least $26 a month in premiums. Republicans have sketched out a five-year, $40-billion plan to help seniors and the disabled on Medicare get more affordable prescription drugs by helping them purchase insurance through Medicare.