Deadline to file for Medicare prescription program should be extended

The Medicare prescription drug program was flawed from its inception. Key portions were designed to protect drug industry profits rather than to save government and consumers money, and the cost of the program was grossly underestimated by the administration to push it through Congress. The vote was held open for an unprecedented length of time and into the wee hours of the morning so that enough arms could be twisted and votes changed to get it passed.
It was a noble idea poorly executed, and while it will save money for senior citizens, it will add to the nation's growing deficit, which will fall to their grandchildren.
That said, it is the only prescription drug program the nation has, and millions of senior citizens are going to lose a portion of its benefits unless the May 15 deadline for signing up is extended.
Failing grades
So far, the president has been adamant about not extending the deadline. He should reconsider, because 73 percent is a D in almost anybody's gradebook, and 66 percent is an F.
In Ohio, only about 73 percent of the eligible beneficiaries have signed up for a prescription program, with only five days to go before penalties are applied to late enrollees. Sixty-six percent is the rate at which Medicare's own operators correctly answered the questions of federal investigators posing as senior citizens in a recently conducted accuracy test. Fully one-third of the calls resulted in erroneous responses or disconnected calls. One important question asked by the investigators got a correct response only 41 percent of the time. That question concerned which drug plan cost the least for a beneficiary based on certain drug needs.
These percentages make it clear that for whatever reason, more than 10 million eligible senior citizens haven't yet enrolled, and the government is obviously deficient in helping millions of potential claimants through the maze of programs and options and requirements.
Though we believe the system is flawed, we also believe that every senior citizen should have the opportunity to receive its full benefits. Clearly, that is not going to happen if the May 15 deadline is adhered to.
If missing the deadline simply meant a temporary loss of benefits, holding to the date might be reasonable. But the penalties can be substantial.
A life sentence
A 1 percent charge is added to any monthly premium for every month that the deadline was missed -- for life. If grandma was one of those millions of people whose call got dropped or who was so confused by the options that she gave up, and if she doesn't get around to enrolling for six months, she will face a 6 percent surcharge on her Medicare drug bill for years -- decades even, depending on her longevity.
The government did so much wrong in fashioning this program, the least it can do is give everyone eligible another six months to get on board before amassing lifetime penalties.
Progress has been made since last November, when even the computer savvy professional children of senior citizens told horror stories of trying to navigate the Medicare Plan D Web site (a doctor wrote a piece that appeared on these pages in December telling how she and her attorney brother had a hard time sorting through the options available to their parents).
Considering the government's slow start, senior citizens should be given additional time to enroll or to make changes in their early choices without being penalized.