Turn on the TV any night and you see the political fallout. Almost every candidate is scrambling to come up with a plan to provide some coverage. As Tuesday's first presidential debate demonstrated, the two major candidates disagree fundamentally on this issue. Al Gore wants to extend Medicare coverage to prescription drugs for all senior citizens. George W. Bush wants to rely on the private sector to provide more competition for seniors' healthcare coverage, including prescription drugs.
Many candidates blast the drug industry's high profits.
Roger Zion of Indiana, honorary chairman of the 60 Plus Association, a group of senior citizens. The polls bear that out. A national survey last month by Advanced Analytics found that 53 percent considered prescription drug coverage to be the most important issue in the campaign. About one-third of the 40 million people on Medicare have no outpatient drug coverage, but the impact goes far beyond those numbers. Other senior citizens who have insurance through HMOs or Medigap plans are facing cutbacks on their drug benefits.