WASHINGTON - The House early today approved a bill to offer prescription drug benefits to Medicare recipients, before lawmakers adjourn for the Fourth of July recess. Republican leaders spent all day yesterday struggling to secure enough votes for passage.

The bill is intended to address a top concern among a critical voter group by allowing the elderly to buy drug coverage through the private insurance market. At a cost of $350 billion over 10 years, the bill also would boost Medicare payments to health-care providers.

The 221-208 vote fell largely along party lines, and sent the measure to an uncertain fate in the Senate.

House Democrats heatedly resisted the measure, calling it far too stingy to be of much help to the elderly. They also complained that Republican leaders had denied Democrats the chance to put their more generous proposal to a vote - for fear, Democrats said, that it would pass.

"Millions of senior citizens will be denied a vote and a voice on the floor of their House of Representatives because the Republicans are so intent on trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes," said Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri, the House Democratic leader.

Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota has said the Senate will vote in July on a prescription drug bill that would offer more generous benefits.

Under the House Republican bill, Medicare recipients would pay an average premium of $33 a month and a $250 annual deductible for drug coverage.

The remaining costs of up to $1,000 a year would be covered at 80 percent; the subsequent $1,000 would be covered at 50 percent. Drug expenses over $3,700 would be covered in full.

Democrats argued that forcing elderly Americans to shoulder all the costs between $2,000 and $3,700 a year would amount to a denial of coverage for those who could not afford it.

Hastert's larger problem was posed by fellow Republicans, many of whom broke down into factions who held out for changes in the bill.

One Republican group, for example, wanted to limit the cost of drugs, which rose at a rate of nearly 8 percent last year, for the 50 most common medications, by easing access to cheaper imports and generics.

In many respects, yesterday's tug-of-war was a reprise of House action two years ago. In 2000, Hastert also had to do some last-minute prodding to win approval of a drug benefit bill just before the July 4 recess.

And like that proposal, this year's House Republican bill is unlikely to find favor in the Senate. Daschle has condemned the House bill as "preposterous."

But after four years of wrangling over how to help the millions of elderly Americans who pay full price for prescription drugs, the two sides are coming closer on several key points of dispute. Some lawmakers say they may finally reach a compromise this year.

"The Republicans have moved from their last position; they are moving in the right direction," said Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin of Baltimore, a leading Democratic voice on health issues. "There is a way to bring this together."

Two years ago, the House Republican bill called for spending $40 billion to subsidize private drug coverage, mostly for the low-income elderly and those with very high drug costs.

Not only have Republicans proposed to put far more money into the program this year; they are now willing to boost the government's share of the premiums to the level Democrats think it should be - about two--thirds, Cardin said.

Senate Democrats have proposed a bill of about $450 billion that has Daschle's backing.

Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, a Connecticut Republican who was active in shaping the House drug benefit bill, agreed that the two sides were coming together.

"This bill is tougher than anything we've ever done," she said. "But we know something needs to be done to control costs."

Johnson observed that most Democrats support using private insurance companies to provide the drug coverage.

"The serious people on both sides are listening to each other," she said

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he, too, saw hopeful signs of an agreement this year - partly because he expects moderate Republicans in the Senate to back the Democrat bill.

"The real question is, can we devise a delivery system that is fair to the elderly and also which the industry can live with?" Kennedy said. "Just the difference in premiums between $25 in the Democratic plan and $33 in the Republican plan is huge."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.