LBUQUERQUE - Launching his strongest single-issue offensive since becoming the official Democratic nominee, Vice President Al Gore yesterday pledged to provide prescription drug coverage for all senior citizens, lambasting pharmaceutical companies for rocketing prices and chiding the Bush campaign for not offering its own plan.
''The time for generalities without specifics, I think, is just about over,'' Gore told reporters aboard Air Force II. ''Where specifics are concerned, it's kind of `put up or shut
up' time.''
Gore aimed his message squarely at the 39 million elderly covered by Medicare, a political bloc that turns out in huge numbers on Election Day. And he made his target obvious, embarking on a weeklong health care tour with a trip to Florida, where he addressed senior citizens and staged a photo-op with two arthritis sufferers in a pharmacy.
''We have come to the point where we can improve Medicare by giving a prescription drug benefit to every single senior in this country,'' Gore said before beginning a 20-minute monologue on the details of his plan.
But the familiar message was not simply that Gore had seized the upper hand on health care - which his campaign, buoyed by good poll numbers and favorable press, believes he has. The strategy also indicated that Gore views health care as his opponent's greatest weakness.
George W. Bush, who had hoped to spend this week discussing his education programs, was forced again yesterday to defend his position on prescription drug coverage, promising to reveal more details of his plan next week. The governor of Texas also defended what he has said about health care thus far, saying he had ''laid the framework for reform'' by supporting a bipartisan plan to overhaul Medicare.
''This is important for me; this is an important issue,'' Bush said at a news conference at the Governor's Mansion intended to focus on education.
But by then, Gore had already given his opponent a stinging rebuke, outlining their differences on health care more starkly than ever.
Speaking to a group of 150 seniors invited to a question-and-answer session at Florida State University, Gore said he was ''not going to say a single negative personal thing'' about Bush. Still, he said, ''a campaign is also a contest, and I invite you to look at what is said on the other side, and I'll let them speak for themselves.''
''You deserve a detailed, adult, intelligent discussion of exactly what the specifics are of the plans that we are proposing,'' Gore said. ''When the other side gets around to proposing a specific plan, then we can compare it and contrast it.''
Under the prescription drug plan laid out by the vice president, half of the cost of prescription drugs (up to $5,000) would be covered. A catastrophy-protection provision allows for Medicare to cover the balance if a beneficiary ends up paying more than $4,000 a year for prescriptions. Medicare recipients who earn less than $11,500 a year would have all of their copayments and premiums taken care of.
The package would cost $253 billion over 10 years, Gore aides said. Gore also took on the pharmaceutical firms, calling for ''more competition for the big drug companies,'' as he accused them of wielding undue influence on Capitol Hill to secure monopoly rights over certain drugs.
Bush aides criticized the Gore plan as inefficient, deriding it as a version of ''Hillarycare,'' the national health care program proposed by Hillary Rodham Clinton in 1993 and later rejected.
''Al Gore is trying to do for prescription drugs what Hillary Clinton tried to do for health care, and that's have government control of drugs,'' said Bush's communications director, Karen Hughes. ''He would have the federal government be the nation's pharmacy for senior citizens. Senior citizens don't want that.''
To blunt that line of attack, Gore put two senior citizens in the spotlight, using the examples of Myrtle Jennings, 82, and Eddie Barrington, 80, to draw a larger conclusion about prescription drugs.
The vice president publicly greeted the pair, both arthritis sufferers, in a family pharmacy that often subsidizes seniors who cannot afford all their medicine. On bended knee before Jennings, a Tallahassee resident who sometimes chooses between prescriptions because she cannot afford them all, Gore raised a litany of concerns. Was it true that many seniors pay as much as $200 a month for drugs? Were some drugs in fact cheaper at the veterinarian than at the pharmacy? The pharmacist nodded yes.
''That's pretty bad, when you've got to pretend to be a dog or a cat to get a price break,'' Gore said.
Later, Gore aides disputed the calculations made by the Bush campaign about the vice president's plan.
The Democratic National Committee also upped the ante yesterday, announcing a new TV ad focusing on prescription drugs. The ads will begin today in nine states, in response to an ad campaign launched by the Republican National Committee that criticizes the Gore plan. Bush is also running an ad in several states pledging to reform Medicare and Social Security without reducing any benefits.
Gore sharpened his remarks during the flight from Florida to New Mexico, telling reporters, ''The American people actually want specifics.''
''Let's not play games with this,'' Gore said in admonishment of Bush. ''Let's put facts on the table. Let's offer specifics. If you're for prescription drug benefits, let's see your plan. If you're saving Medicare, let's see your plan.''
Asked about his recent bounce in the polls, Gore said: ''This is not about momentum. It's about substance.''
Glen Johnson of the Globe Staff contributed to this report from Austin, Texas.
