DEAN SENSUI / DSENSUI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle shook hands after yesterday's AARP-sponsored debate at the Coral Ballroom of the Hilton Hawaiian Village. The gubernatorial candidates gave their plans for helping senior citizens get low-cost prescription drugs.
Gubernatorial The first post-primary election face-off between Lt. Gov. Mazie Hirono and Linda Lingle turned into a sharp debate on how to help senior citizens get low-cost prescription drugs.
candidates debate
drug plans for retirees
Lingle and Hirono discuss
prescription drug costs at a
forum sponsored by AARPBy Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com
Both Democrat Hirono and Republican Lingle had stories about retired people forced to choose between paying for necessities, such as food and rent, or buying needed medicine.
But Hirono defended plans adopted by the state Legislature for cutting the price of prescription drugs while Lingle said such proposals won't work.
The two candidates for governor met yesterday at a meeting of the Hawaii chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Lingle charged that the state plans were not going to be available for nearly two years.
"I think the people who worked on them had really good intentions, but the problem is they are simply not telling you the truth about these bills," Lingle said to a crowd of about 250. "They will not help you now."
Hirono disagreed, saying that it was Lingle who was not telling the truth.
"She is ... misinformed," Hirono said. "She is certainly misleading the AARP members who were prime movers (of the legislation), and I think they knew what they were doing."
In fact, AARP state director Gregory Marchildon said after the one-hour presentation that Lingle and the AARP are "far apart on the issue."
The prescription-drug issue is the biggest item on AARP's political agenda this year, Marchildon said.
The association, which has 140,000 members in Hawaii, is launching a $100,000 political-action campaign this year to get its members educated about the campaign and the issues facing senior citizens, Marchildon said.
"I think the politicians understand that the seniors vote at a larger clip than other groups," he said.
The AARP is nonpartisan, but members will get mailings on how the candidates responded to questions about low-cost drugs, long-term care insurance, boarding and care home inspections, and telemarketing fraud.
Although Lingle won a loud round of applause at the end of her speech, individual audience members were mixed in their reaction.
Kathleen Falvey said she was happy to hear both candidates giving specific points of their programs, but that Lingle appeared to be better prepared.
"I though her presentation was more thought-out," Falvey said.
Fran Miyamoto disagreed, saying Hirono was "more realistic" in her approach, while Lingle was "too idealistic."
"She (Hirono) convinced me today," Miyamoto said.
At issue are two new laws passed this spring by the Legislature with GOP opposition.
One bill sets up a discount drug program under which the state gets manufacturers' rebates on drugs that are offered at discounted prices to participants.
The other set up a Medicaid prescription drug expansion program giving discounted prescription drugs to poor individuals.
The discount drug program bill, which is modeled after a Maine law being appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, wouldn't take effect until 2004.
Lingle said it was deceptive to tell seniors that the state had a program to address their problems.
"The state cannot implement that program and they know it," Lingle said.
Instead, Lingle proposed that large pharmacological supply organizations such as Kaiser or even Wal-Mart or Costco could be enlisted to buy drugs on a state plan.
Hirono said Lingle's plan was similar to the existing state law to pool resources. She also pledged that Hawaii would join with Maine in fighting the case before the Supreme Court.
"This is the kind of state law that is going to be effective, and we are going to make sure this hard-fought law is enacted," Hirono said.
The two also sparred over the issue of food and health-care taxes. The issue has long been part of the GOP platform, and Lingle is again pushing to drop the taxes on food, medical services and nonprescription drugs.
"It is simply not right to tax people for being sick and injured," Lingle said. Hirono countered, saying that dropping the taxes completely would cost the state $340 million a year in lost revenue.
"If you are going to eliminate $340 million of revenue coming into the state, how are you going to continue to support education? That is my question," Hirono said.
Lingle said the state could phase in a tax cut over several years.
