Many Senate Democrats are rallying around a bipartisan proposal to provide Medicare coverage of prescriptions just for people with low incomes or high costs, an idea they rejected as inadequate 10 days ago.

Democrats said today that political considerations had forced them to scale back their earlier proposal to offer drug benefits to all 40 million people on Medicare.

The new Democratic plan, which expands on a Republican plan defeated on Wednesday, is being developed by Senators Bob Graham of Florida, Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, said Democrats must "accept the fact that we are not going to get what we want" this year.

Several Republican senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, both up for election this year, said they welcomed the new focus.

"I am very open to that," Mr. Smith said. Ms. Collins said she had met with Mr. Graham to discuss "possible compromises."

After canvassing her colleagues, Mrs. Lincoln said: "There are plenty of senators who will support a bipartisan prescription drug compromise to protect the most vulnerable seniors in Medicare. The seniors with high drug costs, limited incomes and frail health need a safety-net plan. I think that's what we all have in mind."

The House passed a Republican bill to provide drug benefits under Medicare last month. In the Senate, controlled by Democrats, rival proposals from each party failed to win enough votes earlier this week.

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