By Patrick Crowley
The Cincinnati Enquirer

COVINGTON - Eighty-nine-year-old Ann Schneider has spent more than $1,600 this year on prescriptions for high blood pressure, a thyroid problem and other ailments.

Some have criticized the $400 billion Medicare prescription drug bill Congress recently passed and President Bush is expected to sign next week. Opponents and pundits characterize it as a politically motivated give-away that will swell the federal budget deficit and benefit drug and insurance companies more than seniors.

But Schneider thinks the benefit "will be great."

"I know it will help me a lot," said Schneider. She lives at the Golden Towers senior citizen apartment building in Covington, where most residents already receive some sort of federal subsidy.

Schneider and about 25 of her fellow Golden Towers neighbors heard an explanation of the new program Thursday from a member of Congress who helped make it happen, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning.

Bunning, a Southgate Republican, sits on the Senate Finance and Budget committees. Both had a role in writing the bill.

Bunning said he supported the bill because within two years it will provide a drug benefit to 40 million seniors. Before the program is fully in effect, seniors can save up to 25 percent on prescriptions, while low-income seniors will receive a $600 prescription subsidy in each of the next two years.

He also liked that the program is "means tested," meaning the benefit will be based on the income of the recipients, with the low-income seniors receiving the biggest financial breaks.

Resident James Lawhead, 65, said he and his wife spend "hundreds of dollars" a year on prescriptions. "I know some people have been against" the bill, he said. "But it will help us out financially."

Bunning and his staff also explained the program's benefits and answered residents' questions at two other senior housing complexes, Grand Towers in Newport and Panorama Apartments in Covington.

E-mail pcrowley@enquirer.com