Nevada legislators call on governor to find way to pay for drug plan

After refusing to release money for Gov. Kenny Guinn's prescription drug plan for needy seniors, two Nevada assemblywomen say the governor should come up with an alternative.

Democratic legislators Barbara Buckley of Las Vegas and Vivian Freeman of Reno said Wednesday that Guinn should hold a public hearing to review senior prescription plans from 14 other states.

Guinn's chief of staff, Scott Scherer, said that the legislators are trying to take over the executive branch's role, and if they want to change the plan they need to do so during the 2001 Legislature.

During the 1999 Legislature, Buckley and Freeman joined with other lawmakers in backing the Guinn plan that they now oppose.

Last week, Buckley and Freeman, co-leaders of Nevada's Task Force for the Fund for a Healthy Nevada, persuaded a majority of the panel to vote against releasing $4.7 million from a tobacco settlement fund for Guinn's Senior Rx program.

The women said they wanted more details on the plan, such as what the insurance coverage could cost and the expense of co-payments.

Guinn's plan would allocate up to $40 a month for a needy senior to buy insurance coverage. The interest from insurance companies was minimal, and a second proposal has gone out, with bids due by Aug. 29.

Senior citizens not already covered by Medicaid and with an annual family income of up to $21,500 would be eligible for the program. An estimated 13,400 Nevadans would qualify.

The Democratic assemblywomen called for Guinn to look for an alternative because of the low response from insurance companies

They said they were disappointed that Scherer and Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, used the June 29 hearing to politicize the issue on partisan grounds rather than find answers to the problem.

Scherer and Rawson, who voted to release the money, both said refusing to release funding for the prescription plan constituted malfeasance in office. Because of the way the law was written, they said, it's the task force's duty to release the money.

Jack Finn, Guinn's press secretary, said the assemblywomen's call for public hearings ''is nothing more than political grandstanding.''