Posted At Statesman Journal

BY : Catherine Arnst

The generation that grew up during the Depression and a world war learned to live with raw deals. Even so, Medicare's new prescription-drug "benefit" has proved to be a trial so far.

The program itself has some merit; it eventually will help the very poor and people with no drug coverage. But first seniors must figure out whether to sign up, and they must sort among all the available choices -- 73 of them in Oregon. The clock is ticking toward Dec. 31, the date by which some people ought to decide.

When Congress came up with this mess, you can bet that our elected representatives weren't thinking first of the elderly. Heck no. This plan is tailored for drug companies. It even prevents the government from using its clout to negotiate lower prices for volume purchases.

The next-biggest beneficiary must be public-relations firms, given the incredible amount of effort this Rube-Goldberg scheme takes to explain.

In a better-designed plan, nearly every dollar spent on PR could have gone to prescription drugs.

What was Congress thinking by devising a benefit so complex that clients need computer skills and high-speed Internet access to compare the various plans? How many low-income, frail elderly -- the people most in need of drug assistance -- are likely to boot up their PCs and go to work?

What will happen to all those who don't have helpful relatives or neighbors to translate this gobbledygook for them?

When advocates for senior citizens met last month with U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., they said that even trained volunteers were overwhelmed by the task. Some quit in frustration because they found it so difficult to advise seniors about their choices.

Give Hooley credit for trying to sort out the mess; she didn't even vote for the Medicare drug bill.

Ditto to the state Department of Human Services, which has been spearheading a statewide effort to publicize the drug plan, even though Oregon expects to lose money on drug coverage for Medicaid clients who are eligible for Medicare.

The lucky seniors are those who already are covered by good drug plans through their former employers (assuming those employers don't use the Medicare change as an excuse to drop coverage).

Everyone else needs to figure out whether to sign up; which company to go with; and whether it's better to enroll right away, wait for May, or delay further and pay more.

Get it done; then mince no words telling Congress to fix this mess.