GOP Wins on Drug Reimportation

      WASHINGTON (AP) - Grudging or not, President Clinton''s decision to accept Republican-crafted legislation allowing reimportation of prescription drugs gives the GOP bragging rights on an important campaign issue.

      Frustrated Democrats are left to complain that the measure is designed purely as political cover for the Republicans and will do nothing to bring down drug costs for older Americans.

      ``There are loopholes in there you could drive a train through,'' said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle. Nevertheless, the plan will the South Dakota senator''s vote as well as Clinton''s signature.

      By prior arrangement, Democratic officials said, Clinton will attack the prescription drug provision as an empty promise when he signs it into law as part of a broader, politically appealing bill to provide billions of dollars for agricultural programs. Beyond that, the administration is preparing a broader counterattack, with the Department of Health and Human Services expected to produce a written description that will depict the legislation as unenforceable.

      The bill''s stated purpose is to let drugs be brought back into the United States from Canada and other countries where they cost less than here.

      The potential savings to consumers are eye-catching.

      According to Democrats, the allergy/sinus medication Flonase Nasal costs $46.00 in the United States and $23.00 in Canada. Likewise, 45 pills of the anti-depressant Prozac at 20 milligrams cost $105.64 in the United States, $43.00 in Canada.

      ``I do not think saving money for seniors is a partisan issue,'' Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn, said as the House approved the legislation this week.

      It is one now, less than a month before Election Day, with control of the House and Senate at stake.

      ``This arrangement could drop prescription drug costs by 30 to 50 percent, a welcome discount for many seniors who take medicines daily,'' Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said in a statement after the measure went to the Senate for a final vote.

      The House Democratic leader, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, saw it differently. ``Looking for political cover after repeatedly blocking a Medicare prescription benefit, the Republican leadership put out a sham reimportation measure that isn''t worth the government paper it''s printed on,'' Gephardt said. It is, he said, ``a capitulation to the special interests.''

      Still, maneuvering on the issue marks at least a short-term political victory for Republicans, who have been laboring to show older people they are attuned to the high costs of prescription drugs.

      With the parties unable to agree on a prescription drug benefit for Medicare recipients, another area in which bipartisanship is elusive, the reimportation legislation is the only law Congress will pass this year on the subject.

      Some polls show that prescription drugs rank high on the list of voter issues, particularly in the key battleground states of the Midwest. In the presidential race, the issue continues to favor Al Gore over Texas Gov. George W. Bush, despite extensive GOP efforts to narrow the gap.

      A recent Pew poll, for example, gave Gore a 50-31 edge over his Republican rival as the candidate better able to make prescription drugs more affordable. A more recent internal poll taken for House Republicans gave Democrats a small but still healthy advantage in roughly 40 targeted districts surveyed.

      Republican sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that in a meeting this fall with GOP senators seeking re-election, Majority Leader Trent Lott identified the so-called reimportation legislation as a salve for a campaign sore spot.

      Exercising the prerogatives of the majority, the GOP decided to graft the importation provision onto a routine spending bill that provides money for the Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies. The overall measure includes more than $2 billion in disaster relief for farmers, thus making it a difficult bill to oppose.

      The same legislation allows limited sale of food to Cuba and other nations, but Democrats complain of the provision''s restrictions on financing and travel.

      In secret consultations late last week, according to congressional officials, the White House and House and Senate Democrats debated the wisdom of a veto, balancing the political appeal of billions of dollars in farm aid against the drug and Cuba provisions they were dissatisfied with.

      The decision was to split the difference, accept the package, then attempt to dampen any political benefit that Republican lawmakers might gain.

      EDITOR''S NOTE - David Espo is chief congressional correspondent of The Associated Press.

     

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