President George W. Bush’s proposed plan to provide affordable prescription drugs to everyone has drawn mixed responses from the state of Iowa.

The plan would provide discount cards to seniors which could provide anywhere from a 15 percent to 30 percent discount, depending on how many companies participate.

The plan does not need Congressional approval and is scheduled to be initiated in January.

Steffen Schmidt, university professor of political science, said the discount card does not solve the big problem with prescription drugs.

“A discount card is a small incentive for seniors,” Schmidt said. “The big problem with medicine is there are a lot of people who have no coverage.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, praised the plan in a statement.

The statement read, “[Congress and the president] have the same interests in mind to pass legislation that adds a meaningful drug benefit and makes much-needed improvements to Medicare this year.”

Jill Kozeny, spokeswoman for Grassley, said the senator is pleased with the start of the Medicare reform.

“The senator is expecting more to be done with Medicare,” Kozeny said. “He is working very closely with the White House and Democrats in the Senate to make structural changes to bring benefits to seniors and bring Medicare up to speed.”

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has a different idea about the plan.

He said in a statement, “Not only is the Bush proposal a poor substitute for real prescription drug benefits in the long term, but it could be harmful to our small town pharmacists.”

Seth Boffeli, Harkin spokesman, said the senator had already looked at the possibility of discount cards when dealing with Iowans’ prescription drug problems with Gov. Vilsack and decided it would be better for people to negotiate with manufactures rather than local pharmacist.

Schmidt said this was a gesture by Bush to address an important issue in the country.

“Prescription drugs are on people’s list that they would like to see addressed and it is important for him to have a policy to have prescription drugs,” Schmidt said.

Kozeny said the discount for seniors is very helpful.

“Any amount of discount helps, [that] is Sen. Grassley’s view,” Kozeny said. “It is not the total answer, but Grassley is working on bringing Medicare up to date.”

Kozeny said legislation could take three or four years to take effect after Congress makes a decision.

She said that is not acceptable to Sen. Grassley, who is trying to find a quicker way to provide relief.

Boffeli said Sen. Harkin believes the drug manufacturers are the ones who need to give the discounts, not local pharmacies.

“Sen. Harkin’s prescription drugs co-op goes to the drug manufacturers and says we have a large number of people in the co-op and negotiate lower prices,” he said.

Boffeli said the senator wants the best prescription drug plan possible for Iowans.

Schmidt said Bush’s drug plan might not satisfy the country.

“They want the president to have a strategy on prescription drugs . and the discount coupons are probably not enough,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said the president made a “symbolic” move to address the prescription drug issue.

“In the long run we are going to have to figure out how lower income people can buy prescription drugs,” he said.

The reason prescription drugs are so high is because all the money is going into research and development, Schmidt said.

He said this is not a bad thing because drug companies have made lots of strides in the medical field helping many people.

“We are going to figure out some way to afford increasing menus of sophisticated pharmacy drugs,” Schmidt said.