New Jersey Seniors Organize on Drug Coverage as Political Issue.

Byline: Colleen Diskin

Sep. 11--They are gathered in a tastefully furnished sitting room, a half-dozen senior citizens, animated by a conversation that has them analyzing everything from partisan politics to socialized medicine to the aging of America.

The subject is supposed to be prescription drugs, but like the policy wonks in Washington, this group of upper middle-class seniors is realizing the ripple effects of the problem of helping the elderly pay for their pills.

Can Medicare be reformed? Can HMOs be trusted? Can government afford to take on an expense that is bankrupting many other seniors? Does giving seniors drug benefits mean revamping the way health care is delivered and paid for?

Candidates for president on down have been debating those questions long and loudly, in part because of the demands of seniors like these folks who live at the Classic Residence in Teaneck.

Without prompting from any senior citizen lobbying group, a handful of residents from this independent living-style complex recently started a petition drive and letter-writing campaign, demanding that politicians address the fact that one-third of the over-65 ranks has no outpatient prescription drug coverage. In return, they got promises of support from their congressional, state, and county representatives.

"We are obviously not the people who are choosing between paying for our drugs or paying for our food," said Ruth Weinberger, an 85-year-old former physician, as she sat with other residents in a common area of the complex, where rents range between $3,665 and $5,400 a month, and where a first-time visitor is greeted by a marble foyer and…