Rising from the ashes of the twin Medicare plan defeats, some Senators are trying to resurrect the issue - Medicare Drugs for Those in Need Sway Democrats in Senate.

The bipartisan compromise emerging in the Senate would provide comprehensive Medicare coverage of prescription drugs for people with incomes under 150 percent or 200 percent of the federal poverty level. (The poverty level is $8,860 for an individual and $11,940 for a couple.) Medicare would also cover 90 percent of prescription costs exceeding $4,000 a year for any beneficiary, regardless of income. All beneficiaries could obtain drug discounts of the type already available to many people who receive private health insurance through their employers.

Democratic senators had insisted on an expansive program of prescription benefits that would have cost the federal government $594 billion from 2005 to 2012. But today many said they could accept a $400 billion program. "If we have to compromise to get something done, then so be it," a Democratic aide said.

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The majority leader, Tom Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, said the Senate must pass a prescription drug bill by Aug. 2, when it plans to begin a monthlong recess.

"Our highest priority is to get this bill done," Mr. Daschle said today. "We won't do other things, which are very important, until we get it done."

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that nearly one-fourth of Medicare beneficiaries will have prescription drug costs of more than $4,000 a year in 2005.