Washington -- The legislative process to effect Medicare reform and add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare coverage has begun in the Senate as Sens. John Breaux, D-La., and Bill Frist, R-Tenn., reintroduced two reform bills.

The bills -- called Breaux-Frist I and Breaux-Frist II -- were written by the senators during the last two years. Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the Senate will use Breaux-Frist II as a starting point for reform.

"Senators Breaux and Frist have put a tremendous amount of work into their legislation," Grassley said. "I know from working with Senator Breaux on the Finance Committee and the Special Committee on Aging that he was interested in saving Medicare for baby boomers long before that issue appeared on the national radar screen.

"The Breaux-Frist II bill incorporates the principles many experts believe are critical to saving Medicare. These principles include adding a prescription drug benefit only in the context of overall Medicare modernization, improving the Medicare+Choice program and clearing bureaucratic hurdles at the Health Care Financing Administration."

Breaux-Frist I, the more comprehensive of the two bills, would reconfigure Medicare to be similar to the program that covers federal employees. Beneficiaries could choose from different private plans or stay with the traditional fee-for-service program. The legislation also includes partially subsidized drug coverage.

Breaux-Frist II includes a minimum 25 percent subsidy for prescription drugs for beneficiaries and more for lower-income patients. The legislation also would establish a competitive system for paying Medicare+Choice plans and an agency to oversee Medicare+Choice plans and the drug benefit.

"I want to emphasize that both versions of our Medicare reform legislation guarantee seniors can keep their current Medicare benefits and all seniors will have access to prescription drug coverage," Breaux said. "Our plans combine the best of what government does -- finance and oversight of the program -- with the best of what the private sector does — create competition and keep pace with medical advances."