Most voters want lawmakers to compromise to produce a prescription-drug benefit now, rather than wait years to craft a benefit with better coverage, according to a recent survey.
The survey, released at the end of July by the Republican firm Andres McKenna Polling and Research, asked 800 registered voters about the Medicare prescription-drug bill on which lawmakers are working. Half those surveyed were younger than 55.
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Sixty-eight percent said Congress should produce a compromise now, even if seniors have to pay a small part of prescription costs. They do not want Congress to wait a few years to come up with a plan that fully covers drug costs.
“Voters want compromise now rather than perfection later,” said pollster Michael McKenna.
The poll also found that 62 percent of voters want reforms to the Medicare system to accompany the new prescription-drug benefit. Twenty-five percent favored a prescription-drug benefit even if it doesn’t contain other changes to Medicare.
Among those older than 55, 54 percent said both are needed. More than three of four surveyed said Medicare needs either “significant” or “some” changes, while just one in 20 said it needs no change.
“People want reform,” Mr. McKenna said. “It is not strictly a benefit-driven thing.”
Conservatives are pushing for the final prescription-drug benefit to include significant Medicare reforms, including direct competition between private health plans and traditional Medicare. Many want wealthier seniors to pay more health care costs, and many support creating health-savings accounts for individuals.
Senate Democrats say conservatives are trying to kill Medicare by forcing people into private insurance plans, and strongly oppose any such provision in the final bill. They want a heftier drug benefit, insist on a government-run drug benefit in case private plans fail, and oppose adding health-savings accounts to the final bill.
Both ends of the political spectrum worry that a “compromise” will mean they will not get what they want.
“We’ve been to bipartisanship before and it looks exactly like Democrats,” said Rep. Mike Pence, Indiana Republican. He and other conservatives want the White House and key Republicans to push for a final bill closer to their party’s preferences.
But Sen. John B. Breaux, Louisiana Democrat and a key crafter of the Senate bill, said the deep split between the right and the left on the Medicare legislation is all the more reason why it is a “perfect solution” to gather the members in the middle and pass a broad bipartisan bill.
“We will never be able to satisfy both ends of the spectrum,” said Mr. Breaux, a Medicare conferee. “That’s why it makes sense.”
Sen. Orrin G. Hatch, Utah Republican and Medicare conferee, said conferees will have to give conservatives some of what they want because they can’t afford for House Republicans to oppose the final conference report.
The final bill must be a broad bipartisan one, he agreed, otherwise “it doesn’t have a chance in the world to come through both chambers.”
At the end of last month, a bipartisan group of senators formed a working group to monitor the Medicare conference and ensure it produces a bipartisan bill.
But according to the survey last month, the public is not optimistic about the whole process. Sixty-two percent said they do not believe Congress will pass a Medicare reform and prescription-drug benefit bill this year.
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