By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

Dr. Melissa Brown isn’t a member of Congress, but she was in Washington, D.C., last week as the House of Representatives debated the prescription drug issue.
Brown, the Republican nominee in the 13th Congressional District, met with U.S. Rep. Nancy Johnson, a Connecticut Republican who chairs the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee.
Johnson was the prime sponsor of a bill that would provide $310 billion over the next decade to subsidize prescription drug coverage.
The measure passed, 221-208, early Friday morning. Brown and Johnson met the day before, with the candidate expressing her support for the bill.
On Friday, after the bill passed, Brown held a news conference at the Montgomery County Courthouse in Norristown.
“This bill is probably not a perfect bill, but we can’t afford to wait,” Brown said.
Under the plan, senior citizens would purchase prescription drugs through private insurance companies and managed-care plans.
A large majority of beneficiaries would pay a monthly premium of about $33 and an annual deductible of about $250. The government would pay 80 percent of the next $1,000 of drug costs and 50 percent of the subsequent $1,000.
Beneficiaries would pay for costs in excess of $2,000 until they reached $3,700, at which time the government would cover the rest.
Brown is satisfied that the bill contains enough oversight to protect beneficiaries and make the program a success.
The Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to take up the measure but is likely to pass a more costly bill that would have a prescription drug program covered by Medicare.
Brown has already expressed her support for Johnson’s bill in a conversation with Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.). She plans to speak with Pennsylvania’s other GOP senator, Arlen Specter, on the same issue.
Brown, a nurse and an ophthalmologist from Flourtown, called the bill passed last week a “first step for seniors.” She blasted her opponent, Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D-13th dist.)&Mac226; for opposing the legislation, saying he chose politics over people.
The Republican called Hoeffel a career politician — he was a member of the state House of Representatives and a Montgomery County commissioner before his 1998 election to Congress — who votes the party line.
“I think he’s playing politics with something far too important: health care,” Brown said.
Brown said 39 million elderly Americans cannot wait for the perfect bill to come along. She said it’s time for Democrats to stop playing partisan politics and pass a bill.
“We need to begin to work together,” she said.
Brown wants Congress to pass a bill this year. If elected, she promised to work in the next session to make the bill better.
Brown cited statistics from the Congressional Budget Office that show 80 percent of senior citizens take at least one prescription drug per day. About 12 million seniors don’t have any coverage at all.
The challenger believes out-of-pocket drug costs pose a serious threat to the financial security and health of senior citizens, making them choose between food and medicine.
The time for a prescription drug benefit for seniors, Brown believes, is now.
“We can’t go one more day without it,” she said.