LEWISTON – Sen. Olympia Snowe stood like a teacher before a class, holding a pamphlet in the air and trying to speak plainly. Her topic: prescription drugs.

“I don’t want to confuse matters,” the senator said, trying to make eye contact with many of the 30 retirees who came. “I know this is complex, and there are important details you need to know.”

For the next few minutes, the Maine republican gave the group a quick primer on the program known as the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit. “I just thought we’d have a conversation,” she said.

Until 2006, when its full provisions go into effect, the plan will give people discount cards. For some, they will be accompanied by as much as $600 in credit toward prescriptions and their deductibles.

Then, in January of 2006, the program will begin in its entirety. Benefits will be tied to income. For people below the poverty level – $9,670 for an individual or $13,051 for a couple – the premium will cost nothing and prescriptions will cost $1 to $3. As incomes rise, so do deductibles, premiums and co-pays.

“The point is that people are going to save under this program, no matter what,” said Snowe, who supported the bill but had lots of reservations.

She opposes the federal ban on bulk buying of drugs by states, policies that prevent people from purchasing medications in Canada, and overall caps in the benefits.

“Would I want to have a better program? Absolutely,” she said. “If I had my way, one bill, it would be different.”

It’s a start, though.

According to Snowe, the new program ought to help more than 126,000 people here.

For James and Nellie Williams of Auburn, it will mean they will be able to afford more prescribed medications.

“I sometimes go without so she can have her medicine,” said James Williams of his wife. “She’s always sick.

“The doctor says ‘You need this drug,’ and I say, ‘Do you have anything cheaper?'”

It’s a bind for the couple, now in their 70s. They own their own home, but they shut off most of their house in the daytime because heating oil is too expensive. He often spends $35 a month on his own pills. His wife’s can easily cost double that amount.

Doctors help sometimes. Drug company Pfizer also gives them a discount on his arthritis pain drug, Celebrex. It still isn’t enough, he said.

“I worked all my life and paid taxes,” he told Snowe.” Now that I can’t pay, it would be nice to get some help.”

That’s why he came Thursday to the public luncheon at Lewiston’s Multi-purpose Center. He’d read news stories about the drug legislation, but he wanted to hear it from Snowe.

“They’re hearing so many different versions of what’s been done,” Snowe said of the people she has talked with. “Mostly, they want to know what it means to them.”

Snowe plans to meet with seniors in five other towns over the coming week. Others will likely be in Madawaska on Thursday, Wiscasset on Jan. 12, Bangor on Jan. 13 and Kennebunk on Jan. 14.

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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