AARP asks for wider drug aid for seniors

WASHINGTON — AARP, the national organization representing older Americans, plans to ask Congress to change the new Medicare prescription-drug program, in an effort to give more elderly people with low incomes extra help in paying for medicine and to create a bigger government role in drug prices.

John Rother, AARP's policy director, said Friday the group wants lawmakers to change a rule in the drug program that counts assets in determining which Medicare patients are poor enough to qualify for special low-income subsidies.

AARP and many congressional Democrats tried to exclude assets when the law was being written in 2003.

Rother also said AARP wants to reopen debate over a provision that would have directed health officials to negotiate directly with drug manufacturers over prices. The law embraced a more market-oriented approach in which drug makers negotiate prices with insurance plans that sell the drug benefit to patients.

AARP endorsed the legislation that created the program shortly before it passed a bitterly divided Congress. At the time, Rother said the group might want to "build on it in the future."

The White House has said it does not want Congress to reconsider any aspects of the law, which has come under renewed scrutiny this month as the program took effect amid widespread complaints that elderly people are having difficulty getting their medications.

Democrats have been promoting a bill to change the drug benefit.